WDW announces Mission: SPACE

Newest Walt Disney World Attraction, Mission: SPACE,
Scheduled for Lift-Off in 2003 at Epcot

The next Walt Disney World Resort attraction will go where no thrill ride has gone before -- deep space, announced Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World Resort and Michael Capellas, CEO of Compaq Computer Corporation.

Walt Disney World Resort’s newest attraction, Mission: SPACE, to be presented by Compaq Computer Corporation, will lift off at Epcot in 2003. It’s the latest in a series of new attractions and entertainment offerings at Walt Disney World Resort, continuing a period of phenomenal growth that includes the resort’s current year-long Millennium Celebration.

Concept art for Mission: SPACE

Offering guests a one-of-a-kind "astronaut-like" experience, Mission: SPACE will launch guests into a simulated space adventure -- from pulse-racing lift-off to weightlessness in outer space.

In association with former NASA advisors, astronauts and scientists, Walt Disney Imagineering created Mission: SPACE with new technologies, making it the first ride system ever created to take guests straight up in simulated flight. Set decades into the future, guests are transported in time and place to an International Space Training Center where they will encounter simulated challenges faced by real astronauts.

Plans for Mission: SPACE will be aboard NASA’s International Space Station shuttle flight, the scheduled April 24 launch of Atlantis.

"The combination of Disney magic and Compaq technology will create a truly one-of-a-kind guest experience," said Weiss. "Epcot is the perfect setting, continuing the park’s dedication to the explorer in all of us with its unique attractions that inspire us to discover new worlds."

"Computers are vital in developing space programs today and well into the future," said Capellas. "With some of the most advanced technology ever produced, Mission: SPACE will provide guests with a rare glimpse into a world where the possibilities for computers and space flight are endless."

With a career in the NASA space program that spanned more than 30 years, six-time NASA shuttle astronaut Story Musgrave is an ongoing consultant to Disney’s Mission: SPACE project. Musgrave calls the new attraction, "a place where guests can imagine our future in space and their role in it, walking in the footsteps of heroes and building on the wealth of technology we’ve developed to date."

Mission: SPACE will be in a new Epcot Future World facility next to the popular attraction Test Track presented by General Motors.

Compaq is a major provider of servers, PCs and services to The Walt Disney Company and its Internet initiatives. Mission: SPACE represents a broadening of the relationship between Compaq and The Walt Disney Company.

A closer look at part of the concept art

-- Posted April 21, 2000

Source: Company Press Release