Space Mountain

• Location: At the back end of Tomorrowland beyond Tomorrowland Speedway.
• Date Opened: 1/15/1975
• # of Ride Units: 15 two-car trains, with up to 13 in use at one time.
• Ride Capacity: 12 passengers per train
• Restraint Method: Lapbar
• Ticket Rating: Yes
• Ride Photo: No

• Open/Close: Open and close with the park. This attraction is open during both morning and evening Extra Magic Hours.
• Wait Times: FastPass is strongly recommended for this attraction. Standby times will generally be more than an hour if the park is at all busy. Once FastPasses are gone for the day, the standby line can approach two-hours.
• Length of Ride: 2 minutes 30 seconds
• FastPass: Yes
• Single Rider: Yes
• Queue Description: The exterior queue isn't particularly themed, mostly just winding up ramps to the entrance into the building. The interior queue is themed to look like you're on a space station, about to load a rocket for traveling in space.

• Health Restriction: Riders should be in general good health with no heart, blood pressure, or back problems. Visitors susceptible to motion sickness should consider not riding. Pregnant women should not ride.
• Ride Access: The queue is wheelchair accessible but not ECV accessible. ECV riders will need to transfer to wheelchairs to navigate the queue.
• Wheelchair Transfer: It is required to transfer from wheelchairs into the ride vehicles. The rockets are near ground level, and it is necessary to step down into them.
• Service Animals: No
• Audio: Video captioning is available for this attraction. See Guest Relations for assistance.
• Weight and Size Issues: Should not be any significant issue, though some may find it tight.

• Height Restriction: Riders must be at least 44" (112 cm.) to ride.
• Child Swap: Yes
• Other Issues: Space Mountain is a roller coaster through a dark environment with loud noises and bright lights. Even if you child meets the height requirements they may not be ready yet for it.

• At this location: As evidenced by the fact that most of the Space Mountain footprint is outside of the Walt Disney World Railroad track, the construction of Space Mountain was an expansion of Tomorrowland into what had been backstage and unused space.
• The Attraction's History: Though the track itself remains unchanged since it opened in 1975 pretty much everything else has changed over the years. The original rockets held only four passengers, where they now hold six people in three single-file cars. The biggest changes are in the pre- and post-show areas. The original sponsor was RCA and they presented an upbeat look at the future and home technology with the Home of Future Living along the moving sidewalk that takes you out of the ride. This was tweaked into RYCA-1: Dream of a New World which instead presented a tableau of life on another planet. With the replacement of RCA by Federel Express as the sponsor in 1993 most of these elements were removed to be replaced by gimmicks highlighting Federel Express delivering packages in an interstellar environment. Federel Express ceased their sponsorship in 1998.
• Other Trivia:
  • Speed: Though it feels faster, Space Mountain peaks at a speed of about 28 miles per hour.
  • Two tracks: Squeezed inside the building are two nearly-identical tracks allowing twice the number of vehicles to run at one time.

MousePlanet Links

• Design and Development — Former Imagineer George McGinnis looks back on the story of the design and construction of Walt Disney World's Space Mountain. Part 1, Part 2.
• Measuring Up: Handling Height Restrictions — MousePlanet's Parenting Panel discusses how to handle it when your child is just a bit too short for a ride. (February 18, 2010)