Space Exploration Center

An inquiry room located inside the Space Exploration Centre.

The Martian Exploration Center is a space exploration center featured in the movie Thunderbirds Are Go. It is located at a place called Cape Johnson.

The building itself never appears during the film; we only get to see an inquiry room inside.

Inquiry Room

The inquiry room was a room used for inquiries and votes, such as the discussion about the Zero X crash and whether people were for or against an idea.

The room was tangerine and black in colour and had at least 14 seats at the long table.

Board members

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. / 9.

10.

11. / 12. / 13.

Other Appearances (Isn't That...?)

1. Space Colonel Harris
2. Garfield from 30 Minutes After Noon. Also played a reporter at the Press Conference (Zero-X) in this film.
3. Morrison from Security Hazard. Also played a reporter at the Press Conference (Zero-X) in this film.
4. Skythrust Co-Pilot from Alias Mr. Hackenbacker. Also played a guest at The Swinging Star in this film.
5. Cass Carnaby from The Cham-Cham
6. Captain Foster (NWA) from Thunderbird 6
7. Angry Young Man
8. Brad Newman
9. Paul Travers
10. International Space Control Commander from Ricochet
11. Jansen from Path of Destruction
12. Greg Martin
13. Commander Norman from Trapped in the Sky

Trivia

• It was Sylvia Anderson's idea to have the inquiry room set only tangerine and black in colour. She could tell that art director Bob Bell wasn't keen on this, but as a producer, Sylvia was in charge, so Bob did as she asked.
• The Supermarionation team had to get a crane inside the studio so they could film the whole inquiry room set.
• Part of the floor was used again in the episode Alias Mr. Hackenbacker.
• The set reportedly weighed two tonnes.

The SEC on the cover of TV Century 21, issue 102. Notice the image is flipped (mirrored).

The image used here is also flipped (see below.)

Rooftop - Building 67 - London Airport
(Alias Mr. Hackenbacker)

Inside Building 67
(Alias Mr. Hackenbacker)

An overhead view of the inquiry room.

• For unknown reasons, 2 of the board members were played by different puppets in the overhead shots. No. 8 Brad Newman was played by the Bill Craddock puppet, and no. 11 was played by the Lieutenant Burroughs puppet. (These 2 puppets are also seen at The Swinging Star later in the film.)

Craddock sitting in for Brad Newman

Lt. Burroughs puppet

Director David Lane