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Attraction: Extras: |
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Spaceship Earth, Presented by AT&T, opened on October 1, 1982. On May 26, 1986, Walter Cronkite became the attraction's narrator. As part of the re-Imagineering of Future World's pavilions, Spaceship Earth closed on August 15, 1994. The new attraction, featuring Jeremy Irons as narrator and the Global Neighborhood, opened on November 23, 1994. The original Global Neighborhood closed on July 6, 1999, was updated, and re-opened as the New Global Neighborhood on November 24, 1999. |
The information on this site may not be reproduced in any form on the Internet without express written permission from EDC.
Spaceship Earth Fact Sheet
- The geosphere is 180 feet in height. At its lowest point, it stands 18 feet off the ground.
- The inner sphere (which houses the ride) is 165 feet in diameter and the outer sphere (the silver panels) is 180 feet in diameter. The outer sphere is held about 2 feet away from the inner sphere.
- It encompasses 2,200,000 cubic feet of space and has an outside surface of 150,000 square feet.
- Its six legs are supported by pylons sunk 120 to 185 feet into the ground.
- It weighs 15,520,000 pounds - more than 3 times that of a Space Shuttle fully fueled and ready for launch.
- It took 1,700 tons of steel and 26 months to build the sphere.
- The 11,324 "silvered facets" on 954 exterior triangular panels are made of Alucobond ® material, a composite of ethylene plastic which has been chemically bonded between two aluminum panels. The name comes from ALUminum COmposite BOND.
- The hieroglyphics on the walls in the ancient Egyptian scene of the attraction are authentic recreations of actual graphics. The words being dictated by the Pharaoh were taken from an actual letter sent by a pharaoh to one of his agents.
- The actor in the Greek theater scene is delivering lines from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. In the scene depicting the fall of Rome, the graffiti reproduces markings from the walls of Pompeii.
- In the Islamic scene, the quadrant - an instrument used in astronomy and navigation - is a copy of one from the tenth century.
- The page of the Bible that Johann Gutenberg is examining is an exact replica of a page of the Gutenberg Bible on display in the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA.
- In the Renaissance scene, the book being read is Virgil's Aeneid and the musical instruments are a lute and a lyra da braccio. Both of those instruments are replicas of real period pieces.
- If Spaceship Earth were a golf ball, the person playing golf with it would have to be approximately 1.2 miles tall (to be in the proper scale). The hole would have to be about 417 feet in diameter. If the person was playing on the equivalent of a 200 yard hole, it would have to be nearly 134 miles long - approximately the width of Florida.
- Because of the attraction's prime location at the front of the park and its incredible attention to detail, Spaceship Earth is the most visited attraction at Walt Disney World.
- The prime contractor was Darin & Armstrong.
- Attraction Show Music: by Edo Guidotti
- Global Neighborhood Music: by Russell Brower and Tish Eastman
Consultants & Advisors - 1982
| Ray Bradbury: | Science Fiction Writer |
| Fred Williams: | Professor, Communications The Annenberg School of Communications, USC |
| Carey Bliss: | Curator, Rare Books Huntington Library, LA |
| Howard M. Brown: | Professor, University of Chicago |
| Leonard DeGrassi: | Professor, Art History |
| John Hoffman: | Curator, Warshau Collection of Business Americana The Smithsonian |
| Robert Jensen: | Retired Engineer, NBC |
| Charles Kramalkov: | Professor, Ancient & Biblical Languages University of Michigan |
| Mary Robertson: | Curator, Rare Manuscripts Huntington Library |
| Gilbert Wyland: | Special Assistant, CBS |
Specifications
| Capacity: | 2,895/Hour |
| Show Time: | 11:46 Minutes |
| Cycle Time: | 12:51 Minutes |
| Type of Ride System: | Omnimover with Wedway Traction Drive |
| Maximum Number of Vehicles: | 154 |
| Spare Vehicles: | 4 |
| Seats per Vehicle: | 4 |
| Number of Trains (2 Vehicles/Train): | 77 |
| Ride Length: | 1,552 Feet (465.6 m) |
| Ride Speed (average): | 1.8 Feet/Second (0.549 m/s) |
| Dispatch Interval (per train): | 11:25 Seconds |
| Type Load/Unload: | Turntable |
| Queue Capacity: | 750 |
This information courtesy "EPCOT Field Guide" (© The Walt Disney Company), "Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 1997" (© 1996 Hearst Business Publishing, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company), "EPCOT Center: A Profile" (© 1982 Walt Disney Productions) among other sources.
Spaceship Earth Introduction | Spaceship
Earth Script - Original ('82-86) | SE
Script - Cronkite | "Tomorrow's Child" Lyrics
Spaceship Earth Script - Irons | Global Neighborhood | Spaceship
Earth Fact Sheet
'Spaceship to Tomorrow' Article | SE Concepts and Construction Page
AT&T Press Releases regarding Spaceship Earth:
- "AT&T Renews Sponsorship of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT"
- "AT&T Unveils New World of the Future at EPCOT Pavilion"
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Created October 1, 1996 / Last modified December 19, 2001
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