Volume 3, No. 19. October 10,2003
New Arrivals
It’s
a simulator!
Epcot
at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, announces the arrival of
Mission: SPACE, October 9, 2003. Measurements: 45,000 square feet (4,181
square meters), 35 feet high (11 meters), four ride bays each with 10 four-passenger
simulator units, four-minute flight to Mars plus pre-show training. Delivered
by Disney Imagineers, Environmental Tectonics Corp., Hewlett Packard.
Not surprisingly, in dedicating his company’s latest ride, Disney Company
CEO Michael Eisner invoked the memory of Walt Disney, whose love of space travel
inspired a whole themed section, Tomorrowland, in his original park of Disneyland.
“Space travel was a personal fascination of Walt Disney’s,” Eisner
said. But Eisner could have been accused of overstating when he called Mission:
SPACE the “quintessential Disney attraction.”
We find Eisner innocent on all counts: he was not overstating. More than 350,000
imagineering hours went into the new ride’s design and operation. Give
an Imagineer that much time and a budget reportedly topping out at $100 million,
you are bound to get a special ride and a truly Disney-singular experience.
Feeling sustained g’s during a liftoff, while being thrust around the moon
and with touch-down on Mars, plus weightlessness in between, is a sensation
so apparently authentic it lapsed retired astronauts into reveries of nostalgia.
Plenty of astronauts were doing just that on Thursday. An afternoon ceremony
featured 17 former astronauts. Paired with local middle school and high school
students studying aerospace technology, the real space travelers took the faux
space trip and reported the experience was not so faux. “There are a lot
of things to compare with the authentic (space travel), but this was easier,”
said Gordon Cooper, an original Mercury astronaut who also flew Gemini. “They
did an excellent job of bringing you back to earth; it was a good look, a good
perspective.”
"In
some ways it's better than the simulators we do at NASA," said Robert "Hoot"
Gibson, a Shuttle pilot. "In real simulators it's real time and this speeds
it up, but this does show you the G forces you feel. You feel the weightlessness.
It's an ambitious thing for them to do."
One reason for the ride’s authenticity is the involvement of NASA itself
in the project, so astronauts also featured prominently in the ride’s evening
dedication. NASA’s Chief Administrator Sean O’Keefe joined Eisner
and HP CEO Carly Fiorina on the stage and introduced six astronauts representing
the epochs of NASA space travel: Wally Schirra of Mercury, Jim Lovell of Gemini
(and Apollo 13 fame), Buzz Aldrin of the moon-landing Apollo 11, and shuttle
astronauts Guion Bluford Jr., Joan Higginbothem and Bruce McCandless. Then,
the two astronauts currently living in the space station in a link-up from their
orbit led the countdown to a fireworks display officially opening Mission:
SPACE. Then it was off to more spacey experiences with live concerts from
Sugar Ray and the B-52s rock bands.
The Disney Company is banking heavily on this ride. The resort used the Mission:
SPACE dedication as the keystone of a media event attended by thousands
of journalists with international representation. For the three-day festivities,
company officials unveiled new travel incentive programs, plans for upcoming
rides (see Extra!
Extra!), a new resort, a new fireworks show and another new attraction,
Mickey’s PhilharMagic at Magic Kingdom. Fortunately for the company,
Mission: SPACE delivered on its promise and generated nothing but rave
reviews among those who rode it, even those who came off feeling slightly queasy.
The sensation of space travel was worth a little discomfort, it seems.
Nevertheless, Eisner needs to take care in using a phrase like “quintessential
Disney attraction” to describe his latest greatest hope. For impact as
a new attraction, Mission: SPACE already has serious competition. Surprisingly,
it came from an old duck at another Disney park. (See story below).
For more pictures of the Mission: SPACE opening, click here.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
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