List of Space Racers episodes

Where Are We?: Eager to emulate their favorite television hero, Captain Cosmos, cadets Eagle, Robyn and Hawk zoom off into space – only to encounter powerful solar flares that hurtle them down onto the surface of an unfamiliar planet. Stranded there until space conditions clear up, they must use their keenest observational and analytic skills to try and determine the composition of the soil and rocks, weather conditions and various other factors, hoping to figure out where they are in the Solar System and how to get back home... only to discover, in the end, that they’ve been back on Earth the entire time.

Total Eclipse: With the first solar eclipse in 26 years looming, Stardust Space Academy is preparing for the “Eclipse Run,” a tradition wherein two random students are chosen to race to the Moon and back during the eclipse. As the big day draws near, two Racers are picked: Eagle and… little Starling?!! Eagle is both amused and aghast at the lack of competition. But Starling is determined to compete, so she engages Robyn to tutor her. Thinking the race will be a piece of cake, Eagle lets his guard down and begins to slack off… until the solar eclipse strikes, plunging the race into darkness – an event that overconfident Eagle did not bother to prepare for.

Star Signs: While everyone in school learns about our Solar System’s many constellations, and how to identify them by their unique shapes, Eagle is resistant. Studying is tedious; he’s got “a need for speed!” As always, Eagle would much rather be out soaring through space, exploring, seeing new things and going new places! But when a fellow cadet named Crow is missing, Eagle, Robyn and Hawk are tasked with trying to find him. Their main clue: a cryptic radio message from Crow in which he talked about “following Swan.” Who is this mysterious Swan, and where was he leading the missing Space Racer to? Our three sleuths must learn to ask the right questions if they ever hope to find him.

Mars Canyon Race: It’s time for a Stardust Space Academy tradition: the exciting annual race across Mars’s rocky canyons, which happens once every Martian year (twice as long as an Earth year). Coach Pigeon is busy training and preparing the cadets, who aspire to be as good as the legendary all-time Mars Canyon Race champion, Swift Starlight. The race will span some difficult terrain that the cadets have not explored before: Valles Marineris, the red planet’s grandest canyon of all. Eagle and Raven get into some serious boasting and taunting, each confident that he’ll handily beat the other… which leads to a dare: why wait for the official race? They’ll quietly meet after class at Valles Marineris and settle the bet to see who’s faster. Without telling anyone – only Starling sees them go – they head off to do just that, which leads them both into some serious trouble.

Ace Space Reporter: The Space Racers watch archival TV footage about the legendary Swift Starlight's last race, just before he inexplicably vanished and was never heard from again. Intrigued, Robyn decides to pursue the cold trail of his mysterious disappearance by interviewing several teachers and writing a story for the school blog. Robyn, Eagle and Hawk track Swift’s disappearance to a site on the far side of the Moon, where they find some leftover paint and a few other clues. After gathering more information back at campus, Robyn finally unravels the mystery of Swift Starlight – but will she be able to write her story and tell the world about it?

Eyes on the Prize: Headmaster Crane asks the cadets to study objects in the Solar System, and then share their findings with everyone else. But Raven doesn’t want to share… which leads the others to not want to share either! So Crane comes up with an alternate plan: a Solar System Scavenger Hunt, combining a race and a trivia game. The hunt will lead each cadet on their own adventure to various locations throughout the Solar System, to solve riddles provided by AVA. And the final clue will give the winner a reward “more valuable than any of them can imagine”! Will the Racers solve the riddles? And what will their mysterious reward be?

Asteroids, Platinum Edition: After the Racers are assigned to study an asteroid, nefarious nogoodnik Vulture gives Hawk a secret mission: place a retro rocket on the asteroid to change its trajectory. Keeping any kind of secret from his friends makes Hawk nervous, and Eagle senses something is wrong. On the mission, the Racers try to calculate the asteroid’s trajectory, carefully figuring out where to intercept it so they can study its flight path. After some trial and error they land on it, where Hawk attempts to complete his secret task…but his pals see what he’s up to and get him to spill the beans. Eagle and Robyn are baffled. What’s so special about this asteroid? And why does Vulture want to change its flight path? Analyzing the asteroid’s composition, the cadets are shocked to discover that it’s largely made of platinum! What’s more, the new trajectory has altered the asteroid’s course…aiming it directly at Vulture’s private space station. Now how can they foil his greedy plans?

Cranberry Crater: Coot introduces the class to a Spectrometer tool that analyzes the colors of light reflected off of objects in order to determine their composition. The cadets try aiming it at various surfaces and planets, and are excited about the results it provides. But when he points it toward the Moon, Hawk is surprised when the Spectrometer announces that a lunar crater is made of "Cranberry Rocket Fuel"! To further investigate Hawk’s amazing finding, the Racers fly to the Moon where they meet Trogon, a Russian rocket scientist who’s working in the crater. Will they be able to solve the riddle of Cranberry Crater together?

Sick Day: Aaaah-choo! Eagle comes down with a cold, and has to stay back in Stardust Bay while the other cadets get to test a new, highly advanced solar engine system on an obstacle course close to the Sun. Quickly growing bored with his rock collection and other mindless distractions, Eagle decides to do some research about the solar engines and the test mission. He finds out that Mercury’s orbit could block the sunlight and render the solar engines useless -- putting the cadets and teachers in danger! Will Eagle’s frantic warning reach the test pilots before Mercury casts its shadow on the obstacle course?

Robyn's Winter Break: Winter Break is about to begin, and the cadets share their ambitious vacation plans: Hawk will visit 7,000 asteroids in seven days, Raven is going canyon racing on Mars, and Eagle will have fun ring diving around Saturn, but Robyn hasn’t been able to make up her mind… other than to just go where her wings take her. In the last training race of the semester, however, she injures a wing and learns she’ll have to recuperate at home during the whole break! With Crane and Coot’s help, Robyn finds new ways of exploring interstellar space in the Space Academy Observatory. Who is going to have the most exciting Winter Break stories during show and tell?

Mars Map Mystery: Studying at the Mars campus, Eagle, Robyn and Hawk stumble upon a mysterious old map that seems to reveal a network of Martian canals built by some ancient civilization. If they can find them it would be the discovery of the century, not to mention an A+ presentation in class. Their search takes them on a wild trek across the red planet, where they brave a massive storm, tornadoes, dust devils, and even an encounter with Sojourner, the original Mars rover – but no sign of any “canals”… only to discover that the map is a fraud, and the idea of Martian canals was debunked long ago. Eagle is downcast until he realizes that their search has yielded a discovery just as interesting: a dry river delta, evidence of Mars’ watery past. No aliens, but it still a nifty presentation!

Careering Off Course: It’s Career Day at the Academy, when the Racers are evaluated for their most suitable future job and given a chance to try it out. To their surprise, Robyn and Eagle find their roles reversed: Eagle is pegged with a “boring” post as a Scientist, and Robyn the “pointless” post of Test Pilot. The only one who’s thrilled is Hawk, tabbed as a Fuel Taste-tester. Initially resenting their reversed assignments, Robyn and Eagle find they must team up in their new roles to rescue Starling when she and Coot’s weather balloon are swept away by a weather phenomenon called “Cloud Suck.” The Racers learn to appreciate each other’s talents, seeing that their chosen pursuits are equally worthwhile. Hawk, meanwhile, learns that too much of a good thing can sometimes be not so good.

Hawk's Day: As part of his training, Hawk is unexpectedly assigned to lead a mission to the Moon. His job: to supervise the use of a new Lunar Elevator to lift a group of freighters carrying valuable Moon rocks up into space, and then lead the convoy safely back to Earth. There’s only one problem: Eagle ¬– who’s accustomed to being named Mission Leader – can’t seem to stop offering unwanted advice and suggestions to his insecure friend, which leads them all into big trouble as their convoy is bombarded by a powerful meteoroid stream. The cadets learn that they must work together if they hope to overcome their obstacles.

Fearless Flyers: The cadets are preparing flights of exploration for their vacation. While Robyn and Eagle pick Venus, Hawk and Raven plan something much bolder, where few Racers dare to go: they’ll visit some unexplored areas of the Solar System’s outer planets. While visiting the Academy map room to prepare for their trip, Coot shows them an ancient map of the outer planets with scary names for some unexplored regions: the Fog of Confusion, Giant Protector of Uranus, and the Evil Winds of Neptune. Undaunted, Raven and Hawk make it to the far side of the Solar System but encounter unusual occurrences, just as predicted by the map! Will they be able to identify the mysteries as natural phenomena, or will the “Evil Winds of Neptune” sweep them away into the darkness of space?

Space Racer Storm Chaser: Watching the Earth from space, Eagle, Robyn and Hawk are enthralled by the beauty of their home planet as seen from a distance. But their wonderment is short-lived when they spot a huge storm front moving along a path directly toward Stardust Bay. Uh oh! Eagle and Hawk race back to school to alert everyone and pitch in with protective measures – but Robyn, ever curious, decides she wants a closer look at the dangerous hurricane. Promising to maintain a safe distance from the storm, she flies closer… and closer… and soon finds herself in deep trouble. The power of observation is the only thing that can save her now.

A Simple Re-Quest: While cleaning up space garbage in low Earth orbit, the Space Racers encounter a remnant from one of Stardust’s earliest space programs: Quest One, a ghostly old space station that’s long since been decommissioned and presumed lost. Snooping around the control room, they accidentally reactivate its dormant computer guidance system (QUESTY, a very early version of AVA) – and find themselves trapped inside as the station begins to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in a pre-programmed directive to self-destruct. Eagle, Robyn and Hawk frantically experiment with different tools as they attempt to turn off the program before it’s too late, to save themselves and Questy.

RoboCoach XL-5: Vulture fires Coach Pigeon and replaces him with the new RoboCoach XL-5, purportedly to modernize the training of future generations of Space Racers… but in fact, the robot was really built to spy on Coot's new Solar Sail invention. After finalizing an untested upgrade to the XL-5 to improve its spying capabilities, the relentless RoboCoach malfunctions in the gym – and forces Vulture to take part in an extreme training class. Will the Racers be able to save Vulture from the crazed RoboCoach, and ultimately get their beloved Coach Pigeon reinstated to his job?

Dome Grown: To surprise Headmaster Crane when he arrives the next day, Eagle and friends are creating a garden under a glass dome on the Mars campus. But thanks to an accident while they’re playing near Coot’s workshop yard during their break, our heroes are relegated to clean-up duty and must collect mounds of junk from upended trash bins. When they finally get back to the garden, they’re shocked to discover the vegetation drooping and wilting miserably. What went wrong?? The cadets launch an urgent investigation to figure out why the plants are failing, and to try to rescue them before Crane can see. Starting from the premise that these same plants would have thrived on Earth, they set about comparing the differences between Mars and Earth, hoping that will lead them to the answer.

Grounded: Eagle, Raven, Hawk and Robyn wait outside Headmaster Crane’s office to be brought in before him. Clearly, they’re all in big trouble. Eagle blames Raven, Raven blames Eagle; even Robyn and Hawk have their own opinions. As they quarrel, we flash back and learn how they got into this mess: the Racers are on a class trip to Venus not far from a creepy old abandoned space station, rumored to be haunted, in orbit of the planet. In a test of bravado, the kids screw up their courage to enter the dark, scary space station. What happens next becomes a matter of opinion and point-of-view: which of them accidentally set events in motion that caused the space station to re-enter Venus’s atmosphere and break up? In separate vignettes, we see and hear what transpired from each Space Racer’s POV — which couldn’t be more different — until Headmaster Crane finally confronts them to deduce the truth.

Starling: Space Racer!: Eager to become a Space Racer, Starling first has to pass several tests in order to be officially certified. Usually Coach Pigeon oversees the testing, but Vulture (who greedily wants to drill for fuel under the Spacenasium building) has replaced him as Chief Training Officer. Eagle, Robyn and Hawk offer to train Starling for the test, which Vulture will then have to administer. Since the Racers cannot use the Spacenasium to practice, they find alternate methods to help train Starling to simulate take-off speeds, maneuver Mars storms, land on icy surfaces using retro-rockets, and dodge asteroids. Will they be able to prepare her for the ultimate test and allow Starling to fulfill her dream?

Starling Discovers the Moon: Young Starling makes a startling discovery one night: Earth’s Moon seems to be smaller than the last time she saw it. Can this be? Worried, she begins to chart the state of the Moon every night, which only confirms her worst fears: the Moon is disappearing!!! When she rushes around like Chicken Little, frantically warning everyone, they’re amused at her concern (and naïveté), and try to calm her down... but no one effectively explains how the Moon waxes and wanes over the course of each month. Determined to save what’s left of the Moon from disappearing altogether, Starling decides to travel all the way up there herself and do what she can to avert this catastrophe.

A Tight Squeeze: As Stardust Bay prepares to launch a Time Capsule into space, the students and teachers pick out their favorite items to include in the capsule’s 25-year journey. Vulture’s beloved Limburger cheese-flavored fuel bars, Starling’s favorite “My Lunar Pony” TV episodes, and of some of Eagle’s coveted unusual rock collection are just a few of the capsule’s contents. Nostalgic to relive an old school tradition, the teachers and Vulture squeeze themselves into the crowded capsule, just for fun… when Dodo accidentally locks them all inside and triggers the capsule’s take-off sequence! The Space Racers must work against the clock to try and free the trapped Academy staff from the capsule, before they’re lost in space for 25 years.

Vulture's Statue: When Vulture demands that a larger statue of his glorious image be erected on the school campus, the funds must come from somewhere – and the first casualty is the school’s large telescope. After all, who needs a “stupid old telescope”? The Space Racers are soaring through space all the time, he reasons; they can see whatever they need to see with their own eyes. Problem is, once the telescope is gone, no one notices a massive comet on a dangerous trajectory for their space station on the moon! Now the cadets need to race against the clock to somehow avert the impending disaster, when some simple observation in advance would have made their job a lot easier.

Watch This Space: Eagle excitedly reports having observed an unusual, bright light in the sky. But when he brings the other Racers to see it too, there’s nothing there. Did Eagle actually see something, or did he just make it up? Taking Headmaster Crane's advice, the cadets try to solve the puzzle of the bright light. Testing various hypotheses to explain the sighting, they conclude that Eagle must have seen a variable star, whose brightness changes over time but which is very difficult to detect. With the assistance of AVA's database and Coot’s new software for predicting supernovae, they calculate the spot from where they might observe the next supernova from space. Eagle and the cadets fly there… but will they arrive in time to witness the luminous spectacle themselves and confirm Eagle's observation?

Hawk's On It: When Coot has to leave to attend a school board meeting, he entrusts a nervous Hawk to watch over the workshop for the afternoon. Doing his best to follow Coot’s instructions that by utilizing the right tool you can fix anything, Hawk finds himself dealing with one emergency repair after another; cadet after cadet comes streaming in with bent wheels, dented wings, a misadjusted helmet, clogged rocket boosters, and other problems. Will Hawk be able to find the right tools for the repairs and get some help from his friends along the way?

Communication Breakdown: Things are suddenly going haywire around Stardust Bay: electrical outages, power surges, TV channels changing themselves. Coot is racing himself ragged trying to fix and tinker, but to no avail. A solar storm is the root of the problem, Headmaster Crane determines, and the Space Racers must travel to the Academy’s communications satellite in space to attach a special shield. Problem is, along the way a series of misunderstandings leads to a complete breakdown in dialogue between Eagle, Robyn and Hawk… so there they are in space, trying to restore communications – and they’re not communicating! If they hope to save the day, somehow they must find a way to get past their differences and work as a team.

The Haunted Asteroid: The cadets learn that every 50 years, on Halloween, a haunted asteroid passes really close to Earth during its orbit around the Sun - and that years ago, four daring young racers supposedly went to explore the mysterious asteroid... but never came back! Eager to debunk the myth, Robyn leads a jittery Eagle, Hawk and Raven into space to find the asteroid (if it even exists) and prove that it's not haunted at all. Armed with the necessary tools for their mission - a digital camera and recording equipment - the kids take off. Spooky proceedings ensue, with things that go bump in the night, strange ghostly images captured on their camera, and the discovery of a creepy rocket ship junkyard. When Eagle and his friends uncover the truth about the asteroid, it's something they never expected!

Different: When a physically disabled new cadet arrives one day, the racers are afraid to ask about his short wing. But fearless little Starling approaches Merlin, learns that he was born that way, and that he's perfectly okay with it. Coach Pigeon announces a race to Mars and its moons in teams of two, and the cadets pick their teammates. No one chooses Merlin, so Coach teams him up with Eagle, who's not happy with the idea of being slowed down. As the race begins, Eagle and Merlin get off to a slow start... until Merlin unexpectedly twirls in a tornadolike spin and blasts ahead of everyone - helping them cross the finish line first! Famed scientist Dr. Sparrowhawking emerges from the crowd in his wheelchair to congratulate Merlin, telling the thrilled young rocket that he knows all too well about overcoming a disability... and that Merlin is destined for greatness, too.

Cadet Dodo: When Vulture fires Dodo, the forlorn assistant doesn't know what he'll do or where he'll go. Wanting to help, the kids suggest that he enlist in Stardust Space Academy. Dodo's intrigued: he can actually do that? Headmaster Crane agrees to give him a chance, so the cadets welcome the newest Space Racer to their team: Cadet Dodo. On a group mission with Eagle, Robyn and Hawk to Saturn's moon Io, Dodo makes an accidental discovery: a previously uncharted (and very smelly) sulfur lake. Back on Earth, Vulture gets wind of the find. Wanting the glory for himself, he quickly rehires his former sidekick and, on a wing-shake of newfound trust, they're reunited. Space explorers are granted the honor of naming their discoveries... so Dodo cheerfully names his Vulture Lake... which, to Vulture's chagrin, turns out to be the stinkiest lake in the solar system!

Loon on the Moon: The cadets are on assignment to dig for Helium-3 (the source of their rocket fuel) under the watchful eye of Loon, the eccentric, beloved senior Chief Engineer of Stardust Bay's Lunar Campus. Now about 250, he's been working up there since the school first created its Moon base. When Eagle makes a careless mistake, an angry Vulture blames the elder rocket and demands his retirement. At the big farewell party, all the cadets and teachers show up to honor him. But when a moonquake unexpectedly causes a panic, Loon's experience and relaxed demeanor save the day: unlike earthquakes, which are over quickly, he knows that moonquakes can last for up to 10 minutes. His retirement is overturned by popular demand, and the party becomes a celebration for Loon's next 100 years on the Moon!

To Tell the Truth: Scanning space through a telescope, Robyn spots a new asteroid but can't determine its size. Observing from a distance can play tricks with the truth: faraway objects may look small but can approach us quickly, and objects closer to Earth can seem larger but might still take a while to reach us. When Raven and Crow are sent into space to measure the asteroid, Eagle, hurt at being passed over for the mission, boasts that he's glad he's not going because he and Hawk would miss the big Cosmic Birds concert. Trouble is, they don't have tickets - and the event is all sold out. Caught in their lie, the two friends are teased at school the next day, and turn on each other - becoming so honest that it's hurtful. But they must put their squabble aside and work together to save Raven when his hubris gets him in trouble with the asteroid. In the end everyone learns a lesson about honesty, and what constitutes the truth.

When You Wish Upon a Comet: Starling has a crucial flight test to pass before she can move on with her training. The older cadets have been helping her practice, but the day before the big test she's nervous. To calm her, Robyn mentions that a comet should be visible as it passes Earth that night - and it's good luck to make a wish on it. But the comet never shows. Turns out Robyn got the dates mixed up: the comet won't appear for another four months. Starling is crestfallen, and now convinced that she'll fail. But there's still a way to see a comet that night... just not from Earth! Eagle leads the way as they race through space, dodging meteorites and other obstacles that Starling has learned to navigate. They finally see Halley's Comet, and Starling gets to make her wish after all. When Headmaster Crane learns of her brave skills on their trip, he decides that she's already passed the flight test!

The Little Rocket Who Cried Aliens: When Raven and Hawk are assigned to help Coot with repairs up at Fuel Station Alpha, Starling laments that she's never picked to do anything. Feeling her pain, Headmaster Crane assigns her an important task: to study space through the Observatory telescope and report any unusual activity. The excited junior cadet embraces her new job, reporting sightings of aliens, weird stars and other imaginary incidents, all fueled by her obsession with My Lunar Pony, her favorite TV show. So when Starling finally spots something truly amiss - Fuel Station Alpha's tools floating loose in space, thanks to Raven's carelessness - no one believes her. She finally convinces Hawk, and the cadets blast off to collect the tools and restore them to the station's supply hatch. To atone for teasing her, Raven must now watch a five-hour My Lunar Pony marathon!

How the Grouch Stole Solstice: Told in song. Stardust Bay is abuzz about the Winter Solstice. Every year they gather to watch the Sun set on the shortest day, and then celebrate all night - the longest night of the year. But Vulture finds this disturbing: the festivities cause Stardust Bay to lose productivity. Hoping to sabotage the holiday, he sends a team of cadets into space to adjust some satellites, but doesn't reveal his true purpose - to reflect sunlight back to Earth. To everyone's horror, the night sky suddenly vanishes and sunlight bathes the academy. But the kids are undaunted, and continue their celebration. Vulture is stunned to realize that wonder and imagination can't be stopped. Feeling the heat, he shuts off the satellites and a glistening night sky returns. A super Solstice to all - and to all a long night!

Something Borrowed: Hawk's puppet show isn't going over well with the junior cadets: the Captain Cosmos puppet doesn't look anything like him, and needs a new head. So Hawk races off at intermission to borrow a rock from Eagle's private collection - a rock that looks just like the Captain. Only Eagle's not there... and time is running out... so Hawk hastily borrows it without permission. While taking his bows after the show, he accidentally drops Eagle's rock and it breaks. What to do now? Going against Robyn's advice, Hawk resolves to replace the broken rock without telling Eagle about it. En route for the asteroid belt, he's taken aback when Eagle suddenly appears and wants to fly there with him! They finally land on Psyche, one of the largest (and more unusual) asteroids in the belt... where Hawk's awkward search ends up teaching him an ironic lesson about honesty.

Return to Sender: While Hawk searches for them during a game of Hide & Seek, Starling and Dinky hide inside a box - which turns out to be a crate that's sealed and shipped into space by warehouse robots. The clueless pair has no idea what's going on, but play tic-tac-toe inside the crate to pass the time. Eventually growing restless, they try everything they can to escape from the box... and once they finally succeed, discover that they're now inside a giant warehouse on Mars. Luckily, Russian rocket scientist Trogon happens to be working there at the time. He helps them contact Stardust Bay, and looks after them until Hawk arrives to escort the tiny pair back to Earth... but not before Dinky playfully hides himself one more time - amid the thousands of crates and boxes in the Martian warehouse!

Counter-Earth: The cadets find an old book called Counter-Earth in Coot's workshop, and are astonished to read about Earth's identical twin planet on the other side of the Sun. Why has no one told them about this before?! Determined to be first to discover it, Eagle, Robyn and Hawk set off the next morning. Completing a broad arc around the Sun, AVA announces that they've arrived at their destination. But the more they explore, the more they realize they've landed on Mars. Perhaps they flew too far, AVA suggests. So they blast off to try again... and again... yet each time, the kids find themselves on a familiar planet. But their exhausting search pays off when they finally discover a planet that's just like Earth. Only problem is... it IS Earth. Huh?? Turns out, it's all been an April Fools joke by the teachers and AVA. Counter-Earth is science fiction, not science fact!

The Wizard of Mars: When Starling is excluded from another space mission, she sings wistfully of longing to be part of the team in that great big out there. As the older cadets blast off, their exhaust blows her back, spinning, clutching her doll Mr. Rocket Baby. Everything is a blur... until the haze clears and Starling finds herself in a colorfully wonky, fantastic Mars setting. Grateful that she mushed and squushed mean old Vulture, tiny Mini-Bots direct her to follow the Crimson Canal to the Ruby Red City, where the great Wizard of Mars might help her return home. Along the way, she befriends Eagle, Robyn and Hawk, who also need help from the Wizard. Despite Vulture's vengeful but fruitless efforts to mush and squush them, the foursome reach the magical city... where they learn from the sage Wizard (Headmaster Crane) that they each had the answers all along!

Note: This episode is a reference to The Wizard of Oz.

Volunteer Day: At the big Earth Day Fair, the cadets volunteer for assignments to help improve the environment. Leading a cleanup of low-orbit space junk, Robyn recruits her friends, including a reluctant Eagle - who secretly wants to stay home and watch Orb-O on TV. Up in space the cadets have fun, making a game of it... but Eagle feels they're moving too slowly. Eager to finish, he bosses everyone around, speeding them up and making them miserable. Robyn finally dismisses him so he heads back to Stardust Bay... but finds he's even sadder watching the game alone. Chastened, Eagle returns to the group, apologizes and pitches in - doing such a good job that when Coot shows up to inspect the work, he's so impressed that he appoints Eagle full-time Space Debris Clean-up Captain! Eagle laps up the praise, even as he wonders what he's gotten himself into...

New Cadet on the Block: Everyone is abuzz about a cool new kid who transferred to the academy. Kite's reputation as a daredevil and amazing Orb-O player precedes him, and no one can wait - especially Eagle and Raven, who look forward to the competition. On the day the new cadet arrives, Coot unveils the Observatory's powerful new telescope... which Crow thinks is the coolest thing ever, eagerly learning all about what it can do. Kite quickly lives up to his legend, showing off his athletic prowess and cool demeanor. But he's also a relentless comedian - and seems to have picked Crow for the butt of his jokes. As the bullying escalates and Crow grows more withdrawn, even shying away from the telescope, the other kids decide that enough is enough. Eventually they help Kite understand that no one's laughing anymore, and that an attitude adjustment and apologies are in order.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Galaxy: The cadets are helping Coach Pigeon polish old Fuel Station Alpha, when Crow accidentally activates a view screen. It's a taped message from Fizzy Finchfuzz, owner of the Fizzy Fuel Pop Company, announcing a big race called The Gravity Slingshot Run. The rules are simple: whoever can slingshot from the orbit of one planet to the next - passing every planet in the solar system, using as little fuel as possible - and return to the station first will win the grand prize: 350,000 bottles of Fizzy Fuel Pop! The greedy kids take off in pairs, while Pigeon follows them to make sure they stay safe and to verify who the winners are. The race turns into a weeks-long, insane scramble through the solar system, with each team encountering one obstacle after another. It's a tie at the finish line, where the kids find out just how OLD Fizzy's taped message was: when they finally taste the fuel pop, it's all stale and flat! Yuchh!

Double-O Dodo: Vulture loudly fires Dodo again, and Headmaster Crane takes pity and hires him as an assistant. But when Dodo is caught trying to steal the plans for a new engine that Coot is working on for an upcoming competition, Crane realizes that the firing was a charade: Dodo was sent as a spy! Instead of turning him in, however, Crane decides to turn Dodo into a double-spy, sending him back to Vulture with fake plans. The new mission: to bring back the design plans that Vulture's team is working on. But Vulture quickly catches on too, and flips Dodo again, returning him to Crane as a triple spy. The silly Spy vs. Spy espionage continues to escalate, finally coming to a head at the big technology competition where Crane and Vulture square off - and conclude that by working together, they can better solve the design problems both sides were experiencing.

Stardust Rhythm: Robyn and Hawk are excited about the school's Poetry Slam Festival that's coming up soon. And when Eagle learns that there's a grand prize for the winner of the best poem - a cool new space helmet - even he is suddenly into it. The kids begin writing about their favorite subjects; Eagle is all about speed, and Hawk writes about strength, but Robyn suffers a crisis of confidence when she tries to rhapsodize about science and math. Is that cool enough? Meanwhile, Vulture overhears a bit of Sandpiper's poem about the purple skies of Titan, and mistakenly believes that she's interested in him romantically - so he prepares to recite an ode to their mutual love. It all sets the table for an unexpectedly lively festival when the big day arrives, hosted by Poetry Slam Master Crane.

When the Envy Bug Bites: Raven is envious of Eagle's cool new landing lights, and wants a new array for himself. Headmaster Crane warns him about the dangers of envy, urging him to be content with what he has. But Raven wants what he wants, so when Vulture lures him to his Starflight Emporium & Trading Post, the cadet trades away his old tow-line plus some work IOUs for a brand new lighting array. Still envious of other friends' possessions, he continues to trade in again and again for newer, bigger and better gizmos and gadgets... getting deeper and deeper into IOU work debt to Vulture... finally ending up with his old tow-line again. But when Starling gets into trouble on the moon and needs Raven's help, he discovers that the tow-line turns out to be more valuable than any new gadgets he'd coveted.

Ships in a Bottle: In this clip show, while Eagle and Hawk lug crates of empty Fizzy Fuel Pop bottles down to the recycling center in the basement, they chat animatedly about the big upcoming return performance by the Rooster Rockets. In his excitement, Hawk executes a whirly Rooster move, igniting his afterburner - which accidentally seals the metal door shut. Despite their best efforts the door won't budge, and no one's receiving their radio signals from the deep underground room. And there's no other way out! Hoping someone will realize they're missing and come looking for them, they reminisce about other goofs and blunders from the past, which we see in flashback. Eventually Eagle and Hawk realize they need to save themselves... so they try to tap on an exhaust vent until Coot hears it up above. Rescued!

Clips are shown from "Total Eclipse", "Satellite Starling", "A Simple Re-Quest", "Mine, Mine, Mine!", "Careering Off Course", "Space Racer Storm Chaser", "Election", "Mars Map Mystery", "Dome Grown", and "Cranberry Crater".

The Rocket with Two Brains: AVA misses her old friend QUESTY, the computer system on the inactive Quest One Space Station, so Hawk decides to take her there for a visit. Once aboard the station, QUESTY is overjoyed to hear AVA's voice again! While Hawk naps, the two computer programs chatter away and catch up on all the latest gossip. But when a bubble of hot plasma erupts off the Sun and sprays solar particles into space, they wash over the station and trigger a weird technical anomaly: both AVA and QUESTY are somehow merged together inside Hawk's head. At first he tries to make the best of it... but their endless yammering keeps him awake at night, distracts him at work and play, and generally drives poor Hawk crazy. Finally he just can't take it anymore, and regretfully enlists Coot's help to separate the two programs from his aching brain.

Space Girl Explorers: Sandpiper leads Robyn, Starling and Lark off to Jupiter's moon Europa for their Space Girl Explorers meeting. This is Robyn's big chance to get her 150th badge, for Trailblazing, and finally earn her Saturn Stripes. After several unsuccessful attempts, she's dejected and disappointed... until she picks up a mysterious audio signal that includes the words, Hello, aliens. Aliens? The girls have a real mystery on their wings! Now they need the right tool - so off they fly again, this time to a powerful radio telescope in orbit of Mars. There they track the signal and learns that it's coming from outside the solar system. But from whom? Back on Earth, Robyn discovers the source of the radio signal: a very old probe that Coot launched years ago. Robyn finally earns her elusive badge because trailblazing isn't just about finding new physical paths. It's also for discovering new paths of thinking!