Now displaying: January, 2019
Jan 25, 2019
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Opened January 15, 1975
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Was the first Space Mountain to open, although it was originally planed for Disneyland as "Space Port”
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Designing started in 1964, but Space Port was stopped because of Disney’s death
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It was revived because of the popularity of WDW with teens and young adults; the Magic Kingdom needed a thrill ride
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Disney Artist John Hench drew the original concept art of the SM exterior
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It was Walt who wanted the roller coaster to be in the dark so he could have precise control of the lighting and to project images on the interior walls.
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Selling RCA on an attraction to spend $10 million sponsoring the attraction was key to the project
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RCA approved the sponsorship, and the project started
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The project was lead by John Hench and Marty Sklar, and George McGinnis and Claude Coats - of pirates of the Caribbean and haunted mansion fame— were on the team
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Former astronaut Gordon Cooper, commander of Mercury 9 and Gemini 5, became a member of the Disney team and provided personal consultation to help insure the authenticity of Space Mountain.
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The roller coaster was developed by Arrow (who built the Matterhorn) and Disney
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It’s made up of 2 tracks: Alpha (to the left) and Omega. Alpha is 3,196 feet long while Omega is 10 feet shorter.
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Top speed is between 28 - 35 mph
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Ride duration 2 minutes, 30 seconds
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It’s a pure gravity ride with no boosters or retarders; there are only braking zones. If the ride stops, the brakes are simply released and the trains coast back to the station
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There are 30 trains (15 for each side), with two cars per train, with 3 people per car (although originally, the cars sat 4 people per car; this was changed in 1989)
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The exit was the Home of Future Living from 1975 - 1985 and pretty much included everything that was presented to RCA during the pitch meeting:
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In 1985, it was changed to RYCA-1 which showed what life might be like living in a space colony on another planet; the sets are pretty much the same as they are today. They were changed to reflect sending packages across spatial distances using teleportation when FedEx took over sponsorship in 1994. And during the 2009 refurbishment, it was changed to the current design of Starport 75 and promoting different destinations around the universe to which Space Mountain's rockets could take them
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FedEx added TVs to the waiting area inside and played SMTV which had news clips from around the galaxy
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Sponsors: RCA: 1975-1993 (19); FedEx: 1994 - 2004 (11); sponsorless: 2005 - now (14)