Blast off on a journey into outer space on this classic attraction. Board a sleek, rocket-shaped vehicle in the glow-in-the-dark Space Port and begin a steady climb up the 180-foot high mountain, passing the Mission Control booth and myriad pulsating lights along the way.
Once at the top, feel the wind race across your face as you are propelled through the remote blackness of the dark universe-illuminated only by shooting stars, celestial satellites, spinning black holes and shimmering constellations-during a rip-roaring rocket ride through the farthest reaches of time and space.
Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom theme park features 2 rocket-shaped vehicles consisting of 3 seats per vehicle that blast off from 2 separate tracks. It is the only version of the attraction that contains 2 separate tracks.
After exiting your rocket-vehicle, you will board a moving runway to the Tomorrowland area, passing scenes of futuristic homes and businesses, as well as television monitors that broadcast your image live along the way.
Tomorrowland's Space Mountain has provided thrills to many guests at the Magic Kingdom since it opened January 15, 1975. Space Mountain actually originated in the early 1960s when Walt Disney came up with the idea of a high-speed attraction themed around the space age. Located at the far end of Tomorrowland, the attraction's towering white structure is unmistakable.
Entering Space Mountain, you find yourself in a dimly lit queue that seems to go on and on and on. As you near the Space Port (loading area), you hear shrieks from the space travelers who have gone before you. Eventually, you'll reach the loading platform, and will board six-passenger rockets, seated single-file, for your journey into space.
Slowly your vehicle makes its way into a tunnel of strobe lights and colors. You're then thrust into the darkness of space via a roller coaster that dips and swerves through the galaxy, past shooting stars and glowing planets! The entire ride lasts two and a half minutes with peak speeds of 28 miles per hour.
Touring Tips
- When the rope drops to open the Magic Kingdom, most folks race off to one of two attractions: Splash Mountain (in Frontierland) or Space Mountain. Lines build quickly during busy times.
- Space Mountain is a FASTPASS attraction and it is highly recommended that you use it during peak times.
- If you're up for the coaster early in the morning, a good time to ride is during the Magic Kingdom's Extra Magic Hour for resort guests.
Facts
- The left side track is called the Alpha; the right side track is called the Omega. Both tracks are nearly identical and mirror each other in twists and drops. One side is 3,186 feet, the other 3,196 feet.
- The rockets that race through space achieve a maximum speed of 28 miles per hour-but feel much faster in the dark.
- The Space Mountian attraction at Walt Disney World is over 180 feet high, and over 300 feet in diameter, making it one of the largest 'mountains' in Florida.
- The cone shaped peak of Space Mountain is 183 feet above ground. Space Mountain measures 4,508,500 cubic feet -- capable of holding a small skyscraper inside. The base's diameter of 300 feet took two years to build. The basic structure of the mountain is composed of great ribbed slopes -- 72 massive pre-stressed concrete beams forming a gigantic sealed cone. Each of the 74-ton concrete beams was cast near the Space Mountain site and then hoisted into place by mammoth cranes to complete the cone. Each beam is 117 feet long, 13 feet wide at the bottom and 4 feet wide at the top.
- Space Mountain has 15 trains for each track, though only 13 are usually in operation at any given time. Each train consists of two single-file rocket-shaped cars.
- RCA was the official sponsor of Space Mountain from its opening in 1975 until 1993. In 1993, Federal Express Corporation became the official sponsor, as well as the official express delivery service of the Disney theme parks in the U.S. Federal Express ended its sponsorship of the ride in the late 1990s.
- When Space Mountain officially opened, it joined the Country Bear Jamboree as the only two Disney theme park attractions to debut at the WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort in Florida.
- The stripe on the side of the Space Mountain ride vehicles is produced by a special clear paint with phosphorous added. The paint is illuminated by the black lights in the load/unload area and by the all-night maintenance lights throughout the ride. There are four incandescent-bound black lights.
- Space Mountain was closed for refurbishment on April 19, 2009. The newly updated version of the attraction was officially re-opened to the public on November 22, 2009. When Space Mountain was refurbished, a number of tributes to the defunct Epcot attraction Horizons were added into the ride.
- With the closure of Cypress Gardens in 2009, Space Mountain is the oldest operating roller coaster in the state of Florida.
History
The Space Mountain concept was a descendant of the first Disney "mountain" attraction, the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, which opened in 1959. The Matterhorn's success had convinced Walt Disney that thrilling rides did have a place in his park.
In 1964, Walt first approached designer John Hench with his idea for a new attraction that would be the focal point of a renovated Tomorrowland planned for 1967. His "Space Port" would include a roller-coaster-style ride in the dark, with lighting and other special effects. Originally called "Space Voyage" with concept artwork by John Hench, Clem Hall, George McGinnis, and Herb Ryman. The attraction concept continued to be refined over the coming years by WED Enterprises, and in June 1966, the "Space Port" attraction was called "Space Mountain" for the first time.
WED partnered with Arrow Development Company, the same company that had helped design the Matterhorn's roller coaster systems years before. The initial concept was to have four separate tracks, but the technology available at the time, combined with the amount of space required versus that which was available within Disneyland, made such a design impossible. Walt Disney's death in December 1966 and the new emphasis on preparing for the newly-announced Disney World project forced WED to put aside the design of Space Mountain indefinitely. The Magic Kingdom's early success, and its unexpected popularity with teens and young adults, prompted WED to begin planning thrill rides for the new park shortly after its opening in October 1971. A new Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction was considered, but it wouldn't fit within Florida's Fantasyland.
Ultimately, designers returned to designing Space Mountain. The Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland had the right amount of available land, and computing technology had improved significantly since the initial design phases. To help cover the cost of developing and building Space Mountain, Card Walker, the CEO of Walt Disney Productions, convinced RCA chairman Robert Sarnoff to sponsor the new attraction; RCA was contracted by Disney to provide the communications hardware for the Walt Disney World Resort, and their contract stated that if Disney presented an attraction of interest, RCA would provide USD$10 million to support it.
The interior of the structure, the queue area, the tracks of the roller coaster, and the post-show each went through a large number of various design changes before the current layout was selected. Originally, the mountain was to be positioned in the southern portion of Tomorrowland, which would be where Disneyland would install their Space Mountain in 1977. Instead, it was placed outside the park's perimeter berm, roughly due east of Cinderella Castle, with a tunnel, called the "star corridor", under the Walt Disney World Railroad tracks installed for people to reach it. This is contrary to the Disneyland counterpart, where people directly enter through the side of the building.
Hidden Mickeys
- Every third window of stars while you wait in line has a Mickey constellation, similar to the one in Spaceship Earth. Look for a partial outline made of stars; the black space in the middle is Mickey's head.
- During one of the news reports in the video shown in the queue area, a satellite comes toward the camera and it is a three-dimensional, fully-detailed Mickey head.
- In the video with Mario Lopez you see while in line, a building in the background forms a tri-circle Mickey. The shot falls away from the camera very quickly, so you have to pay close attention.
- You can see a Hidden Mickey from either of the loading bays or the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Look for the big meteor, followed by a comet, then followed by the three "chocolate chip cookie" looking meteors that spin and briefly form a Mickey head when they meet for a short second.
- It is on the moving walkway where you see the robotic dog. There is a small, black "Mickey" on his neck right under his collar.