The Odyssey Timeship - the golden timeship against deep space, from the original 2001 site banner

The voyage log

The journal of the Odyssey Timeship - dated entries from commission to arrival, added to as the voyage progresses.

A ship keeps a log, and so does this one. The main story is told on the story, technology and archive pages; this journal simply records events as they happen, in date order, and will be added to over the voyage.

2000
Commissioning, design and build. The entire platform - ticket office, call centre system, payment interface, printing and scanning pipeline - was designed and built from scratch in twelve months, ready for launch the following summer.
14 February 2001
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II writes to the Chairman of the Board of Governors, calling the project "an important and significant document for future generations and historians".
6 June 2001
The Odyssey Timeship opens for entries on D-Day. Tickets available online, by telephone and by post.
7 June 2001
The launch ceremony at The Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond - Lords, Ladies, senior military figures, Sir Michael Caine and Dame Thora Hird. The system's first live trial runs on the night, and the first tickets are sold.
November 2001
The first records are handed to HRH the Duke of Kent, President of the Board of Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, by Falklands veteran Simon Weston, supported by Dame Vera Lynn. Recorded in the Court Circular.
6 June 2002
The Timeship closes to new entries, one year after launch.
31 July 2002
The last postal applications are accepted. Around 700 tickets carried.
Midnight, 31 December 2002
Flight TIME-001 departs - the archive is sealed for its hundred-year voyage to 2101.
c. 2016
The exhibit is visited at the Imperial War Museum by the project's technical architect and lead, Stuart J Mackintosh, and confirmed intact.
2016
The Royal Star & Garter marks its centenary; the commemorative book telling the charity's hundred-year story features the Odyssey Timeship.
June 2021
Twenty years on - the anniversary is marked with a retrospective blog post and business press coverage of the project's story.
2026
Twenty-five years on - a fuller reflection on the project's archive format decisions is written.
11 July 2026
This site relaunches on the original domain, odysseytimeship.com, in the original 2001 design - the permanent record of the project, kept so the Timeship is known about when it arrives.
Midnight, 31 December 2101
Arrival. The capsule is opened at the Imperial War Museum, one hundred years after departure.