SPACE MOUNTAIN
WALT’S FINAL DISNEYLAND PROJECT
In the early 1960s, Walt Disney began working on a reimagining of Tomorrowland, believing this section of Disneyland was never truly finished. Among the ideas Walt pitched to his Imagineers: a roller coaster built entirely indoors.
Matterhorn Bobsleds had opened in 1959 as the world’s first tubular steel roller coaster. Now, Walt felt his Imagineers could extend the concept by building a similar attraction that never left the show building, giving them complete control of the lighting, temperature, and special effects. Envisioning a thrilling journey through the stars, Walt called the attraction Space Port, a ride that would later be named Space Mountain.
A FLORIDIAN SPACE PORT
Before the Imagineers could complete work on Space Mountain, they diverted their attention to the upcoming 1964 World’s Fair in New York. As a result, Tomorrowland’s refurbishment launched into orbit without Walt’s Space Port concept. Surely there would be time afterward to revisit the indoor coaster.
But after the fair, their focus was redirected once again as work began on Walt Disney World. After Walt passed away in 1966, plans for Space Port found themselves on a metaphorical shelf, collecting metaphorical dust.
When Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the Imagineers realized the Florida park was short on thrill rides. (Arguably, the most thrilling ride at the time was Dumbo the Flying Elephant.) As the Imagineers brainstormed solutions, Imagineer John Hench recalled Walt’s idea for Space Port and proposed adding this attraction to Walt Disney World. Four years later, on Jan. 15, 1975, Florida’s new tallest “mountain” debuted, becoming one of the most iconic Disney attractions of all time.
MATTERHORN 2.0
Like Matterhorn Bobsleds, Space Mountain in Florida was manufactured as a tubular steel roller coaster with each train consisting of a single-file row of guests across two cars (rockets). Two tracks in Florida, Alpha and Omega, are the mirror image of one another, although Alpha is technically 10 feet longer than Omega.
While Matterhorn and Space Mountain share many similarities, the latter built upon the former with new concepts and technologies. First, creating a roller coaster entirely indoors gave the Imagineers precise control of lighting. Pinpoint light star effects along the track and intergalactic projections on the ceiling create the illusion that you’re orbiting in space.
Second, Space Mountain was the first roller coaster to employ a computerized zone system. This increased the safety and efficiency of roller coasters — a central computer could space the vehicles and adjust the speed of individual rockets. Imagineers later outfitted Matterhorn Bobsleds with this system, and virtually every roller coaster worldwide now employs some derivation of this technology.
LANDING IN ANAHEIM
With the massive popularity of Space Mountain in Florida, Imagineers quickly developed plans to bring Walt’s final project to his home park. The attraction opened two years later, on May 27, 1977, but Disneyland required the Imagineering team to think a bit differently about the second version of the experience.
Most notably, Imagineers had to scale the Disneyland version for a smaller park and smaller castle. At Walt Disney World, the Space Mountain show building stands 183 feet tall and 300 feet in diameter at its widest point. Even with its massive size, Space Mountain is still shorter than Cinderella Castle (189 feet tall) and, as it’s located outside the boundaries of the Walt Disney World Railroad, it doesn’t draw much attention away from the park’s central icon.
At Disneyland, Imagineers needed to construct Space Mountain within the boundaries of the Disneyland Railroad, but they also didn’t want guests to be able to see it from Main Street, U.S.A. To accomplish this, Imagineers moved from a two-track system to a single track, and they built the foundation for Space Mountain 17 feet underground. As a result, this version of Space Mountain is smaller than its Florida counterpart, standing at 117 feet above ground level and 200 feet in diameter.
Another challenge was finding a way to give Space Mountain at Disneyland the same efficiency as the original version. In moving from two tracks to one, the Imagineers cut the guest capacity in half. To compensate, they expanded the width of the rockets to allow
guests to sit side-by-side rather than single-file. This doubled the ride capacity, which, if you’re keeping score, delivered the same efficiency as Florida’s version.
ALL SYSTEMS GO
Space Mountain not only remains a popular attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, but also at nearly every other Disney Park around the world (all except Shanghai Disneyland). Walt’s final Disneyland project continues to delight fans around the globe, and it’s celebrated as one of the most classic theme park attractions of all time.