D’s Throwback Disney – Looking at brief history of Space Mountain by David Caamano

When I was a young boy vacationing to Disney World with my family I was a wuss when it came to thrill rides. My sister was the thrill seeker and showed no fear. So when it came time for me to initially ride Space Mountain, I was doubtful. Put it this way…I was such a coward, that I vomited on my mother’s arms in line to ride Maelstrom at the Norway pavilion because I was so anxious and worked up. At some point in the early 1990s, I finally allowed my mother to pressure me onto Disney World’s classic thrill ride. I am now grateful for this push and since then, Space Mountain has been one of my favorites.

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Tomorrow marks the 41st birthday of the first ever Space Mountain; the first indoor roller coaster on the globe and first coaster to be controlled and powered entirely by computers. With five Space Mountains in the world, the Florida version remains a classic and is extremely popular with park guests. Sponsored by RCA at the time, it opened it’s doors on January 15th, 1975 (the same year my parents graduated high school). An astronaut Mickey Mouse joined real life astronaut Colonel James Irwin in dedicating this new attraction and took the maiden voyage into space.

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The dedication ceremony was a grand two-day event that was later televised as part of The Wonderful World Disney series. The hour long show aired on March 23rd, 1975 and was hosted by the daughter of tv’s most famous couple from the 1950s, Lucie Arnaz. The celebration began the night before, with an outdoor banquet for thousands of invited guests and was located at the Caribbean Plaza in Adventureland. It was a perfect vantage point from across the park to view the newly improved Tomorrowland. The next day, on January 15th, 50,000 balloons, a 2,000 piece marching band on the tracks of the People Mover and thousands of doves helped kick off the dedication ceremony. In reality, the tv special was a 40 minute commercial advertising the many entertainment and attraction offerings at the resort intertwined with musical numbers and tap dancing by stars of the time such as Tommy Tune. If you can stomach the citrus-coloured outfits of the 1970s, you can find it on YouTube.

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Walt Disney himself was always fascinated and intrigued with space travel. Despite the fact he would never see the Space Mountain attraction open, he included a space travel attraction in many forms at his original park since opening day in 1955. Before thrill rides such as Mission: Space and Space Mountain, there was a little known A-Ticket attraction called Space Station X-I at Disneyland in Anaheim. The attraction was located where Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters currently sits in California. It was a walkthrough attraction, so to speak, where you were placed in a circular room representing a space station. The ‘windows’ would look out to a spinning miniature model of the earth giving guests the sensation of what earth would look like from space. This was a pre-cursor to the Circle-Vision 360° theatres that would appear in all the Tomorrowlands around the world.

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Bouncing off the success of Disney’s first rollercoaster at Disneyland, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, Walt had begun original plans for a ‘Space Voyage’ thrill ride in 1964. He approached designer John Hench, who worked on classics such as the Carousel of Progress and it’s a small world, to start coming up with ideas for this new space coaster. However when Walt died, the project was put to a halt. The new coaster wouldn’t be revisited until after the Magic Kingdom in Florida opened.

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The Florida version is unique in that it is the only Space Mountain to have a double track and where guests sit single-file; giving the sensation that you are flying through space alone. The show building itself is minimal and reflects the original optimistic vision of the future that was seen in Walt’s 1967 version of Tomorrowland. Despite the rest of the land in Florida being renovated in 1994 to resemble a more fantastical science-fiction vision of the future, Space Mountain’s design has stayed the same.

 The main structure and diagonal beams of the roof was unique for the time, in that it was fully exposed on the outside of the building. This provided the inside roof of the show building to be used as a smooth projection surface to display animations of space and planets more. The building measures 300 ft in diameter and is 180 ft tall, it’s enormous. Originally it was intended to be placed where the Carousel of Progress currently sits, like it’s counterpart in California. However the massive height of the building would be visible from Main Street there and would pull attention away from the park’s ‘weenie’, Cinderella Castle. Therefore, designers chose to place the building outside the perimeter of the Walt Disney World Railroad. That means, the next time you go through the queue take a moment to realize you are actually walking underneath the train tracks before ascending back up into the building.

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Over the years since 1975, Space Mountain has remained relatively in tact with minimal changes. Sure the sponsor of the attraction would change to FedEx in 1994, around the same time I was able to stomach my first trip on the coaster, but little has changed with this E-Ticket classic. The only major change is reflected on the People Mover track inside the building. I remember that day in the 90s, when my mother took me on the People Mover to gear me up for my first space ride. She thought she was helping me build up courage. Back in those days, once you entered the show building on the People Mover, you could see the loading bays for Space Mountain and the side panels of the ride vehicles would glow so you could see them shooting around the place. Now, this portion of the People Mover is completely covered and you can only hear the screams. Other than that, the ride is relatively the same as it was when my mom was a teenager in the 70s.

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In many ways, the nostalgic kid in me is happy it’s been left untouched. I can still walk through that star tunnel and remember my palms sweating the first time I rode the ride. Although I wish we could get temporary overlays like the recent Hyperspace Mountain celebrating Star Wars at Disneyland, this classic still brings excitement and joy to every trip I take to the Magic Kingdom.

 Stay tuned tomorrow, where I will give you some tips whilst experiencing this attraction and some great Hidden Mickeys along the way.

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