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Spaceship Earth (Disney)
Encyclopedia
Spaceship Earth is the iconic and symbolic structure of Epcot
, a theme park that is part of the Walt Disney World Resort
. One of the most recognizable structures at the Walt Disney World Resort, it is not only the centerpiece and main focal point of Epcot, but also the name of the attraction housed within the 18-story geodesic sphere that takes guests on a time machine
themed experience using the Omnimover
system. The 13-minute dark ride
shows guests how advancements in human communication
have helped to create the future one step at a time. The attraction involves a timeline
from the origins of prehistoric man
to the dawn of the 21st century, where guests can then create a future for themselves.
writer Ray Bradbury
, who also helped write the original storyline for the attraction.
The term 'Spaceship Earth' was coined by Buckminster Fuller
, who also developed the structural mathematics of the geodesic dome
.
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The structure is similar in texture to the United States pavilion from Expo 67 in Montreal
, but unlike that structure, Spaceship Earth is a complete sphere, supported on legs.
Geometrically, Spaceship Earth is a derivative of a pentakis dodecahedron
. It is a Class 2 Frequency 16 Icosahedron, with each of the 60 isosceles triangle faces divided into 16 smaller equilateral triangles (with a bit of fudging to make it rounder). Each of those 960 flat panels is sub-divided into four triangles, each of which is divided into three isosceles triangles to form each point. In theory, there are 11,520 total isosceles triangles forming 3840 points. In reality, some of those triangles are partially or fully nonexistent due to supports and doors; there are actually only 11,324 silvered facets, with 954 partial or full flat triangular panels.
The appearance of being a monolithic sphere is an architectural goal that was achieved through a structural trick. Spaceship Earth's is in fact two structural domes. Six legs are supported on pile groups that are driven up to 160 feet into Central Florida's soft earth. Those legs support a steel box-shaped ring at the sphere's perimeter, at about 30 degrees south latitude in earth-terms. The upper structural dome sits on this ring. A grid of trusses inside the ring supports the two helical structures of the ride and show system. Below the ring, a second dome is hung from the bottom, completing the spherical shape. The ring and trusses form a table-like structure which separates the upper dome from the lower. Supported by and about three feet off of the structural domes is a cladding sphere to which the shiny Alucobond
panels and drainage system are mounted.
The cladding was designed so that when it rains, no water pours off the sides onto the ground. (All water is "absorbed" through one inch gaps in the facets and is collected in a gutter system - and finally channeled into the World Showcase Lagoon.)
) was an early instance of computer aided drafting and materials processing.
Spaceship Earth was sponsored by the Bell System
originally, from 1982 until 1984. Bell was broken up into smaller companies in 1984, and its parent company, AT&T
became its own independent company. AT&T would sponsor Spaceship Earth from 1984 until 2004. From 2005 onwards, German
company Siemens
has been the new sponsor of Spaceship Earth.
In October 1982, the attraction experience began as the ride vehicles moved up into the structure through a lighted tunnel enhanced by a fog machine, and then ascended on a spiraling track up through dark spaces featuring a series of lighted historic vignettes. The attraction featured actor Larry Dobkin as the narrator along with a very simple and quiet orchestral composition throughout the attraction.
A list of the scenes is below. The theme of communication through the ages was developed in chronological order in theatrical settings peopled with Audio-Animatronics
figures. Actors were seen (and heard quietly) declaiming in a Greek theater. Charioteers carried messages from a Roman court, and Jewish and Islamic scholars discussed texts. With typical Disney whimsy, a monk was seen fallen asleep on a manuscript he was inscribing. Michelangelo
, overhead, painted the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, and Gutenberg manned his printing press.
Suggesting the rush of 20th-century technology, subsequent scenes melded together, overlapping each other as the circumference of the ride track narrowed. A newsboy hawked papers, a movie marquee and film clips represented the motion pictures, radio and television were represented. As the vehicles reached the large space at the apex of the ride system, guests saw, on the planetarium ceiling of the sphere, projections of stars, planets, the Milky Way, and, closest and largest, "spaceship earth." The Omnimover vehicles then revolved 180 degrees, so that the passengers were lying backward facing the "sky" as they began their descent, on a relatively straight track. The attraction ended with guests hearing scientific audio from around the world, and seeing on a series of screens, projected scenes of computer graphics, scientific data, a space shuttle
launch, among others. The ride stops intermittently as wheelchairs are loaded or unloaded.
In May 1986, the attraction was given a slight remodel. This second version of the attraction started off with the lightened tunnel enhanced by twinkling lights, meant to depict star
s, with the fog machine removed. Famous news journalist Walter Cronkite
was the new narrator, reading from an updated script. A theme song called Tomorrow's Child was composed for the ending of the attraction, which was redesigned with projected images of children on screens to help fit with the theme of "Tomorrow's Child".
In August 1994, the attraction was given a major remodel. This third version of the attraction kept the lightened tunnel as it was in 1986, and maintained the majority of the scenes depicted in the beginning and middle of the attraction. Three scenes toward the end of the attraction that showed a computer
in a boy's bedroom of the 1980s, a woman's office of the 1980s, and a network operations center of the 1990s, were all removed and replaced with one scene depicting a boy and girl using the internet from America to Asia via instant communication. Actor Jeremy Irons
was the new narrator, reading from an updated script. A new orchestral composition was composed for the beginning, middle, and end of the attraction. The ending itself was completely redone, with the removal of the Space Station scene located in the attraction's planetarium, replacement of an old projected image of Earth in the planetarium with a new image, and replacement of the 1982 and 1986 ending scenes of the ride them with miniature architectural settings connected by color-changing fiber optic cables and arrays of blinking lights representing electronic Communication pathways. The attraction re-opened in its third version on November 23, 1994.
On July 9, 2007, the attraction was again closed for another remodel that included a number of updates to the attraction. The attraction opened again with its fourth version in February 2008, with a new score composed by Bruce Broughton
and new narration provided by Dame Judi Dench
. The attraction's exterior was also modified for the 2007 renovations.
, the new sponsor of Spaceship Earth, having signed on in 2005, created a new exhibit space called Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future. The new exhibit space once again uses the entire exhibit space that only Earth Station had once used. The new exhibit space houses interactive exhibits featuring various Siemens AG technology. These interactive displays and games allow guests to see the future of medicine, transportation and energy management. The space opened with two games, with two new games added in December 2007 and January 2008.
Project Tomorrow current attractions are:
When Siemens AG
took over as sponsors, the lounge was given the name "Base21". Before that, Spaceship Earth was sponsored by AT&T
for many years.
In celebration of the year 2000, a large 25-story "magic wand" held by a representation of Mickey Mouse's hand was built next to the sphere. Inspiration for it came from the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence of Fantasia
(although Mickey did not actually use a magic wand in that sequence). At the top of the structure was a large cut out of the number 2000. While the structure wasn't intended to be permanent, it was constructed to have a lifetime of about 10 years. After the Millennium Celebration ended, the structure was left standing. In 2001, the number 2000 was replaced with the word "Epcot" in a script font that differs from the park's logotype. On the morning of July 5, 2007, Epcot Vice President Jim MacPhee officially announced that Spaceship Earth would be restored to its original appearance and that the "magic wand" structure would be removed in time for the park's 25th anniversary on October 1, 2007. Siemens, the sponsor of Spaceship Earth, is rumored to have requested the wand removed as it did not fit their corporate image.
On July 9, 2007, the attraction itself was closed for refurbishment, and the surrounding area was walled off. By October 1, the entire wand structure, the stars, and the star supports had been removed. In addition, palm trees and other plants that originally stood where the structure was prior to 2000 were replaced.
Components of the structure were later auctioned on eBay
.
, new narration by Judi Dench
; and a new interactive ending featuring a touch screen. New scenes show a Greek classroom, mainframe computers and the creation of the personal computer.
The "time machine" vehicles now have an interactive screen where riders can choose their vision of the future. This resembles a similar idea on the now-defunct attraction Horizons
. At the beginning of the ride, a camera takes riders' pictures (using facial recognition technology
) which are used at the end of the ride to conduct an interactive experience about the future of technology, featuring the riders' faces on animated characters and narration by Cam Clarke
. Visitors are now also asked where in our Spaceship Earth they live; this is used in the post-show area where a map of the world is displayed with the riders' faces on where they live.
The renovations were scheduled to be completed for a February 2008 reopening but the attraction opened for "soft launch" previews starting in December 2007. On February 15, 2008, the ride reopened officially after closing periodically in January for last-minute adjustments.
The ride begins with the Omnimover vehicles ascending into a dark tunnel with twinkling stars all around. Midway, the guests are asked to have their picture taken to be used later in the ride, and in the post-show. Guests then see prehistoric man fighting for survival, later on Cavemen are depicted, who developed the first spoken language
s. Then guests see the Egyptian
s, who invented a system of hieroglyphs and made papyrus
on which to record them; Phoenicia
n merchants, who developed a written alphabet
(the Phoenician alphabet); Ancient Greece
, where the theater was a popular form of entertainment; and Ancient Rome
, whose leaders built a vast system of roads
all over Europe
.
After the sacking of Rome
by invaders, guests see scenes of the Middle Ages
, when Jewish and Islamic scholars continued to progress in science
, and when monk
s copied Bible
s by hand. The attraction then moves on to the European Renaissance
, the development of the movable-type printing press
, and the 20th century communications revolution—newspaper
s, telegraphs, radio
, telephone
s, movie
s, television
, as well as the computer
.
The remainder of the ride is involved in seeing a depiction of Earth
from space, traveling through an infinite amount of stars and into a realm of glowing triangles. The guests can then use the touch-screens in their Omnimover vehicle to fill out a questionare to create a possible depiction of their future, which uses the pictures taken at the beginning of the ride.
Spaceship Earth has former scenes-a Greek theater, a living room, an American bedroom, a Japanese office, a network operations center, a lining tunnel, a news and video game scene, and a diorama. In the diorama, there is a 2010s city that has a house (with a bedroom and a living room) and a hotel and a graduation place and a computer lab and a clinic and a cottage and the Museum of Natural Prehistory. The finale also has a futuristic city.
May 26, 1986:
August 15, 1994:
November 23, 1994:
September 29, 1999:
November 24, 1999:
May 2001:
January 1, 2003:
April 2004:
November 2005:
April 11, 2007:
April 25, 2007:
July 5, 2007:
July 9, 2007:
August 24, 2007:
December 2007
February 15, 2008
March 4, 2008
Spaceship Earth narrators:
Vic Perrin: October 1, 1982 - May 26, 1986;
Walter Cronkite
: May 26, 1986 - August 15, 1994;
Jeremy Irons
: November 23, 1994 - July 9, 2007;
Dame Judi Dench
: February 15, 2008–present
Epcot
Epcot is a theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, located near Orlando, Florida. The park is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely international culture and technological innovation. The second park built at the resort, it opened on October 1, 1982 and was initially named...
, a theme park that is part of the Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...
. One of the most recognizable structures at the Walt Disney World Resort, it is not only the centerpiece and main focal point of Epcot, but also the name of the attraction housed within the 18-story geodesic sphere that takes guests on a time machine
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
themed experience using the Omnimover
Omnimover
The Omnimover is an amusement ride system used for Disney theme park attractions. Roger Broggie and Bert Brundage developed the system for WED Enterprises, which patented Omnimover in April 1968...
system. The 13-minute dark ride
Dark ride
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride where riders in guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music, and special effects....
shows guests how advancements in human communication
Human communication
Human communication, or Anthroposemiotics, is the field dedicated to understanding how people communicate:* with themselves: intrapersonal communication** expression: body language* another person: interpersonal communication...
have helped to create the future one step at a time. The attraction involves a timeline
Timeline
A timeline is a way of displaying a list of events in chronological order, sometimes described as a project artifact . It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labeled with dates alongside itself and events labeled on points where they would have happened.-Uses of timelines:Timelines...
from the origins of prehistoric man
Prehistoric man
Prehistoric man may refer to:*Human evolution*the Homo *archaic Homo sapiens*any perceivedly primitive culture-See also:*Caveman*Primitive man*Prehistory*Paleolithic*Cradle of Humankind...
to the dawn of the 21st century, where guests can then create a future for themselves.
Background
The structure was designed with the help of science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, who also helped write the original storyline for the attraction.
The term 'Spaceship Earth' was coined by Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, who also developed the structural mathematics of the geodesic dome
Geodesic dome
A geodesic dome is a spherical or partial-spherical shell structure or lattice shell based on a network of great circles on the surface of a sphere. The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and also distribute the stress across the structure. When...
.
The structure
Montreal Biosphère
The Biosphère is a museum in Montreal dedicated to the environment. It is located at Parc Jean-Drapeau, on Île Sainte-Hélène in the former pavilion of the United States for the 1967 World Fair Expo 67.- Expo 67 :...
, but unlike that structure, Spaceship Earth is a complete sphere, supported on legs.
Geometrically, Spaceship Earth is a derivative of a pentakis dodecahedron
Pentakis dodecahedron
In geometry, a pentakis dodecahedron is a Catalan solid. Its dual is the truncated icosahedron, an Archimedean solid.It can be seen as a dodecahedron with a pentagonal pyramid covering each face; that is, it is the Kleetope of the dodecahedron...
. It is a Class 2 Frequency 16 Icosahedron, with each of the 60 isosceles triangle faces divided into 16 smaller equilateral triangles (with a bit of fudging to make it rounder). Each of those 960 flat panels is sub-divided into four triangles, each of which is divided into three isosceles triangles to form each point. In theory, there are 11,520 total isosceles triangles forming 3840 points. In reality, some of those triangles are partially or fully nonexistent due to supports and doors; there are actually only 11,324 silvered facets, with 954 partial or full flat triangular panels.
The appearance of being a monolithic sphere is an architectural goal that was achieved through a structural trick. Spaceship Earth's is in fact two structural domes. Six legs are supported on pile groups that are driven up to 160 feet into Central Florida's soft earth. Those legs support a steel box-shaped ring at the sphere's perimeter, at about 30 degrees south latitude in earth-terms. The upper structural dome sits on this ring. A grid of trusses inside the ring supports the two helical structures of the ride and show system. Below the ring, a second dome is hung from the bottom, completing the spherical shape. The ring and trusses form a table-like structure which separates the upper dome from the lower. Supported by and about three feet off of the structural domes is a cladding sphere to which the shiny Alucobond
Alucobond
Alucobond is a brand of light-weight composite material consisting of two pre-finished 0.02" thick aluminium cover sheets heat-bonded to a core made of polyethylene plastic.-External links:* * * * *...
panels and drainage system are mounted.
The cladding was designed so that when it rains, no water pours off the sides onto the ground. (All water is "absorbed" through one inch gaps in the facets and is collected in a gutter system - and finally channeled into the World Showcase Lagoon.)
Construction
Construction took 26 months and 40,800 labor hours to build. Extending upwards from the table are "quadropod" structures which support the smaller beams which form the actual shell of the steel skeleton. Pipes stand the aluminum skin panels away from the skeleton and provide space for utilities. A small service car is parked in the interstitial space between the structural and cladding surfaces, and can carry a prone technician down the sides to access repair locations. The shop fabrication of the steel (done in nearby Tampa, FloridaTampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
) was an early instance of computer aided drafting and materials processing.
The attraction throughout the years
Bell System
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
originally, from 1982 until 1984. Bell was broken up into smaller companies in 1984, and its parent company, AT&T
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
became its own independent company. AT&T would sponsor Spaceship Earth from 1984 until 2004. From 2005 onwards, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
company Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
has been the new sponsor of Spaceship Earth.
In October 1982, the attraction experience began as the ride vehicles moved up into the structure through a lighted tunnel enhanced by a fog machine, and then ascended on a spiraling track up through dark spaces featuring a series of lighted historic vignettes. The attraction featured actor Larry Dobkin as the narrator along with a very simple and quiet orchestral composition throughout the attraction.
A list of the scenes is below. The theme of communication through the ages was developed in chronological order in theatrical settings peopled with Audio-Animatronics
Audio-Animatronics
Audio-Animatronics is the registered trademark for a form of robotics created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequently expanded on and used by other companies. The robots move and make noise, generally in speech or song...
figures. Actors were seen (and heard quietly) declaiming in a Greek theater. Charioteers carried messages from a Roman court, and Jewish and Islamic scholars discussed texts. With typical Disney whimsy, a monk was seen fallen asleep on a manuscript he was inscribing. Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
, overhead, painted the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, and Gutenberg manned his printing press.
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
launch, among others. The ride stops intermittently as wheelchairs are loaded or unloaded.
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s, with the fog machine removed. Famous news journalist Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
was the new narrator, reading from an updated script. A theme song called Tomorrow's Child was composed for the ending of the attraction, which was redesigned with projected images of children on screens to help fit with the theme of "Tomorrow's Child".
In August 1994, the attraction was given a major remodel. This third version of the attraction kept the lightened tunnel as it was in 1986, and maintained the majority of the scenes depicted in the beginning and middle of the attraction. Three scenes toward the end of the attraction that showed a computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
in a boy's bedroom of the 1980s, a woman's office of the 1980s, and a network operations center of the 1990s, were all removed and replaced with one scene depicting a boy and girl using the internet from America to Asia via instant communication. Actor Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
was the new narrator, reading from an updated script. A new orchestral composition was composed for the beginning, middle, and end of the attraction. The ending itself was completely redone, with the removal of the Space Station scene located in the attraction's planetarium, replacement of an old projected image of Earth in the planetarium with a new image, and replacement of the 1982 and 1986 ending scenes of the ride them with miniature architectural settings connected by color-changing fiber optic cables and arrays of blinking lights representing electronic Communication pathways. The attraction re-opened in its third version on November 23, 1994.
On July 9, 2007, the attraction was again closed for another remodel that included a number of updates to the attraction. The attraction opened again with its fourth version in February 2008, with a new score composed by Bruce Broughton
Bruce Broughton
Bruce Broughton is a film, video game, and television soundtrack composer who has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career, including American music classics such as "Homeward Bound," "Silverado", "Tombstone," and wonderfully lyric music for "Miracle on 34th...
and new narration provided by Dame Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
. The attraction's exterior was also modified for the 2007 renovations.
Earth Station
The original post show for Spaceship Earth was called Earth Station. It lasted from 1982 until 1994. It was a wide open exhibit space that included:- EPCOT Center Guest Relations
- Seven large rear projector screens mounted on the walls of the exhibit space toward the ceiling that displayed visual previews of various EPCOT Center attractions.
- WorldKey Information: Interactive kiosks that offered previews of various EPCOT Center attractions. Guests could also talk to a live cast member via two way closed circuit video, or make a restaurant reservation while in the park.
Global Neighborhood
When AT&T renewed their sponsorship in 1994, they redesigned the exhibit space for Earth Station into the Global Neighborhood. The original Global Neighborhood lasted from 1994 until 1999. In 1999, the exhibit space was updated to become the New Global Neighborhood for the Millennium Celebration. The exhibit space closed in 2004 after AT&T left as sponsor.Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future
AT&T's departure as sponsor in 2004 caused the exhibit to close. Siemens AGSiemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
, the new sponsor of Spaceship Earth, having signed on in 2005, created a new exhibit space called Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future. The new exhibit space once again uses the entire exhibit space that only Earth Station had once used. The new exhibit space houses interactive exhibits featuring various Siemens AG technology. These interactive displays and games allow guests to see the future of medicine, transportation and energy management. The space opened with two games, with two new games added in December 2007 and January 2008.
Project Tomorrow current attractions are:
- An illuminated globe featuring an ever-changing collage of inspirational images of tomorrow.
- Body Builder, a 3-D game allowing guests to build a digital human body.
- Super Driver, a driving simulation video game featuring vehicle accident and avoidance systems. It simulates what is supposed to be the future of driving. You drive a "smart-car" and try to stop the city from being destroyed.
- Power City, a large digital "shuffleboard-style" game that has guest racing around the board to power their city.
- InnerVision, a coordination and reaction-time game with elements similar to SimonSimon (game)Simon is an electronic game of memory skill invented by Ralph H. Baer and Howard J. Morrison, with the software programming being done by Lenny Cope and manufactured and distributed by Milton Bradley. Simon was launched in 1978 at Studio 54 in New York City and became an immediate success. It...
and Dance Dance RevolutionDance Dance RevolutionDance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...
VIP Lounge
A VIP lounge exists on the second floor at the back of the building that houses the post show for Spaceship Earth. It is a place for employees and customers of the current sponsoring company to relax while visiting the park. When Spaceship Earth was without sponsorship from 2004–2005, the room was utilized for private events such as weddings and conventions. The layout is small and curved in shape, with one wall consisting of large windows where visitors can look out onto the park.When Siemens AG
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
took over as sponsors, the lounge was given the name "Base21". Before that, Spaceship Earth was sponsored by AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
for many years.
Recent changes
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
(although Mickey did not actually use a magic wand in that sequence). At the top of the structure was a large cut out of the number 2000. While the structure wasn't intended to be permanent, it was constructed to have a lifetime of about 10 years. After the Millennium Celebration ended, the structure was left standing. In 2001, the number 2000 was replaced with the word "Epcot" in a script font that differs from the park's logotype. On the morning of July 5, 2007, Epcot Vice President Jim MacPhee officially announced that Spaceship Earth would be restored to its original appearance and that the "magic wand" structure would be removed in time for the park's 25th anniversary on October 1, 2007. Siemens, the sponsor of Spaceship Earth, is rumored to have requested the wand removed as it did not fit their corporate image.
On July 9, 2007, the attraction itself was closed for refurbishment, and the surrounding area was walled off. By October 1, the entire wand structure, the stars, and the star supports had been removed. In addition, palm trees and other plants that originally stood where the structure was prior to 2000 were replaced.
Components of the structure were later auctioned on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
.
2007 Renovations
With the new Siemens AG sponsorship, changes have been made to the ride and post show area. The ride's updates include new scenes, modifications to existing scenes; some new costumes, lighting, and props; a new musical score by Bruce BroughtonBruce Broughton
Bruce Broughton is a film, video game, and television soundtrack composer who has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career, including American music classics such as "Homeward Bound," "Silverado", "Tombstone," and wonderfully lyric music for "Miracle on 34th...
, new narration by Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
; and a new interactive ending featuring a touch screen. New scenes show a Greek classroom, mainframe computers and the creation of the personal computer.
The "time machine" vehicles now have an interactive screen where riders can choose their vision of the future. This resembles a similar idea on the now-defunct attraction Horizons
Horizons (Epcot attraction)
Horizons was the name of a dark ride attraction at Epcot , a theme park at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida USA. Located on the eastern side of the "Future World" section of Epcot, the attraction used Disney's Omnimover conveyance system, which took guests past show scenes depicting...
. At the beginning of the ride, a camera takes riders' pictures (using facial recognition technology
Facial recognition system
A facial recognition system is a computer application for automatically identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source...
) which are used at the end of the ride to conduct an interactive experience about the future of technology, featuring the riders' faces on animated characters and narration by Cam Clarke
Cam Clarke
Cameron Arthur "Cam" Clarke is a prolific American voice actor and singer, well known for his work in animation and video games. Clarke is well known for providing the voices of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Shotaro Kaneda in the 1989 original English-dub of Akira. He often voices...
. Visitors are now also asked where in our Spaceship Earth they live; this is used in the post-show area where a map of the world is displayed with the riders' faces on where they live.
The renovations were scheduled to be completed for a February 2008 reopening but the attraction opened for "soft launch" previews starting in December 2007. On February 15, 2008, the ride reopened officially after closing periodically in January for last-minute adjustments.
Ride scenes
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s. Then guests see the Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
s, who invented a system of hieroglyphs and made papyrus
Papyrus
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
on which to record them; Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n merchants, who developed a written alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
(the Phoenician alphabet); Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, where the theater was a popular form of entertainment; and Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, whose leaders built a vast system of roads
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
all over Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
After the sacking of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
by invaders, guests see scenes of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, when Jewish and Islamic scholars continued to progress in science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, and when monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s copied Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
s by hand. The attraction then moves on to the European Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, the development of the movable-type printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
, and the 20th century communications revolution—newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s, telegraphs, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
s, movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, as well as the computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
.
The remainder of the ride is involved in seeing a depiction of Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
from space, traveling through an infinite amount of stars and into a realm of glowing triangles. The guests can then use the touch-screens in their Omnimover vehicle to fill out a questionare to create a possible depiction of their future, which uses the pictures taken at the beginning of the ride.
Show scenes
This list corresponds to the current, fourth version of the ride.- Spaceship Earth mural
- Load Area
- Time Tunnel/Vortex
- Prehistoric Caveman/Wooly Mammoth
- Cavemen
- Egyptian Temple
- Phoenician Merchants
- Chinese Math Teacher
- Roman Roads
- Rome Burns
- Jewish and Arab Scholars
- Cathedral Abbey
- Gutenberg Press
- Renaissance Players
- Renaissance Artists
- Sistine Chapel
- Steam Press
- Telegraph
- Telephone
- Radio
- 4D Cinema
- Television/Moon Landing
- Mainframe Computer
- A Garage in Tokyo
- Data Flow Tunnel
- Spaceship Earth Planetarium
- Infinite Stars
- Descent Tunnel featuring Glowing Triangles and the questionnare on the Omimover's touch-screen.
- Unload
Spaceship Earth has former scenes-a Greek theater, a living room, an American bedroom, a Japanese office, a network operations center, a lining tunnel, a news and video game scene, and a diorama. In the diorama, there is a 2010s city that has a house (with a bedroom and a living room) and a hotel and a graduation place and a computer lab and a clinic and a cottage and the Museum of Natural Prehistory. The finale also has a futuristic city.
Attraction timeline
October 1, 1982:- Spaceship Earth opens with the opening of EPCOT Center.
- Sponsored by the Bell SystemBell SystemThe Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
. - The narrator is Vic Perrin.
May 26, 1986:
- Attraction reopens from first major renovation.
- AT&TAT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
is now the sponsor, having signed on in 1984. - New narration by Walter CronkiteWalter CronkiteWalter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
. - Finale music changed to Tomorrow's Child.
August 15, 1994:
- Closes for second major renovation.
- "Home computer", "Office Computer", "Network Operations Center", and "Space Station" scenes removed.
- New final scenes installed and replace old final scenes.
- Earth Station closes.
- Tomorrow's Child ending removed.
November 23, 1994:
- Attraction reopens.
- New ride narration by Jeremy IronsJeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
. - New ride score by Edo Guidotti.
- The Global Neighborhood replaces Earth Station.
September 29, 1999:
- The Mickey MouseMickey MouseMickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
arm holding a wand is dedicated with "2000" over Spaceship Earth.
November 24, 1999:
- The Global Neighborhood is replaced with The New Global Neighborhood, a new exhibit space serving as a hands-on playground for Spaceship Earth's post show.
May 2001:
- The Mickey MouseMickey MouseMickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
arm holding a wand is changed to say "Epcot" over Spaceship Earth.
January 1, 2003:
- AT&TAT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
sponsorship ends.
April 2004:
- The New Global Neighborhood is removed and the area is boarded up. AT&TAT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
references removed.
November 2005:
- It is announced that Siemens AGSiemens AGSiemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
will sponsor Spaceship Earth for twelve years.
April 11, 2007:
- Major changes coming to Spaceship Earth are announced.
April 25, 2007:
- The new exhibit space in Spaceship Earth's post show called Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future opens.
July 5, 2007:
- Epcot Vice President Jim Macphee announces the removal of the wand structure in time for the park's 25th anniversary on October 1, 2007.
July 9, 2007:
- Closes for a fourth renovation.
- Removal of the wand structure begins.
August 24, 2007:
- Removal of the wand structure completed.
December 2007
- Guest previews of fourth edition begin.
February 15, 2008
- Fourth edition opens to the general public after renovations.
- New narration by Dame Judi DenchJudi DenchDame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
.
March 4, 2008
- Spaceship Earth is rededicated.
Spaceship Earth narrators:
Vic Perrin: October 1, 1982 - May 26, 1986;
Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
: May 26, 1986 - August 15, 1994;
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
: November 23, 1994 - July 9, 2007;
Dame Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
: February 15, 2008–present