Spaceship Earth (Disney)

For the phrase, see Spaceship Earth.

Spaceship Earth is an attraction at Walt Disney World's Epcot. One of the most recognizable structures at the Walt Disney World Resort, it has been remodeled and updated numerous times. Originally, the attraction featured actor Vic Perrin as the narrator and a very simple and quiet orchestral ending. In May of 1986 it was remodeled and famous news journalist Walter Cronkite now provided the detailed narration audio of the ride and a new ending featuring the song, Tomorrow's Child was added. Finally, in August 1994 it was again revamped with actor Jeremy Irons narrating and again, the ending was redone to provide a more modernized look at today's technology. During the 1994 remodeling, Tomorrow's Child was removed from the ending of the ride. The ride re-opened on November 23, 1994.

The 18-story geosphere houses a 12-minute dark ride using the Omnimover system that explores the progression of human communications from cavemen to the dawn of the internet (see ride scenes below).

Geometrically, Spaceship Earth is a pentakis dodecahedron, with each of the 60 equilateral 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 of them, with 954 partial or full flat panels.

Attraction facts

Grand opening: October 1, 1982 (Opened with Epcot)
Designer: WED Enterprises
Show time: 13:26
Narrator: Jeremy Irons
Height: 180 ft (55 m), 240 feet (73 m) with EPCOT marquee
- The dome is raised 18 ft (5 m) off the ground by pylons sunk more than 120 ft (37 m) into the ground
Diameter: 165 ft (50 m)
Circumference: 518.1 ft (158 m)
Volume: 2,200,000 ft³ (62,000 m³)
Weight:15,520,000 lb (7,040,000 kg)
Triangle tiles:11,324
Area: 109,375 ft² (10,161 m²)
Highest point in attraction: 163 ft (50 m)
Average angle of descent: 20 degrees
Steepest angle of descent: 39 degrees
Show Scenes:
- Cave Interior
  - Cro-Magnon Man
  - Shaman (Medicine Man)
- Egyptian Temple (1567-1085 B.C.)
  - Hieroglyphs (first used in 3000 B.C.)
  - Hieratic Writing (cursive form)
  - Papyrus
  - Scribe (10-12 years formal education required)
- Phoenician Scene (9th-century B.C.)
  - Phoenicians
  - Alphabet (22 letters)
- Greek Theater
  - “Oedipus Rex” (written by Sophocles, circa 428 B.C.)
- The Roman Road Network
- Islamic Empire
- Cathedral Abbey (11th- and 12th-century Benedictine Monks)
- Gutenberg Press (Johann Gutenberg, 42-line Bible, 1456)
- Renaissance Italy (1500s)
- The Age of Invention (19th and 20th centuries)
  - Steam-powered press (William Bullock, 1863)
  - Telegraph
  - Telephone
  - Radio
  - Motion Pictures:
    - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
    - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
    - Girl Shy - Harold Lloyd
  - Television:
    - Walt Disney introducing Wonderful World of Color
    - Leave It to Beaver
    - 1964 NFL Championship Game, Colts vs. Browns
- Connections
- Global Network
- Network Tunnel
- Spaceship Earth Planetarium
- Current Events
- Virtual Classroom
- Infinite Gas Clouds
- Neighborhood Vignettes
- Global Neighborhood
- Communications Net
- Finale Corridor

Construction facts

The building was designed with the help of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who also wrote the original story treatment for the ride. It 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 World Showcase Lagoon.) Construction took 26 months and 40,800 labor hours to build.

Ride scenes

The ride starts with cavemen, who developed the first spoken languages. Then viewers see the Egyptians, who invented a system of hieroglyphs and made papyrus on which to record them; Phoenician merchants, who developed a written alphabet (the Phoenician alphabet); Ancient Greece, where the theatre 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, viewers see scenes of the Middle Ages, when Jewish and Islamic scholars (Jewish scholars added during the November 23, 1994 update) continued to progress in science, and when monks copied Bibles by hand. The ride then moves on to the European Renaissance, the development of the movable-type printing press, and the 20th century communications revolution—newspapers, telegraphs, radio, telephones, movies, television, and videoconferencing.

This is the end of the historical segment of the ride; the remainder is split between abstract depictions of Earth and the communications that take place upon it, and the possible communications technologies that will be developed in the future.

Timeline

October 1, 1982:

Spaceship Earth opens with the opening of EPCOT Center.
Sponsored by Bell System.
The narrator is uncredited but is thought to be either Vic Perrin, Walker Edmiston, or Walter Pigeon.