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| The Orlando Space Mountain was the world's first completely dark indoors coaster. |
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This is only Spac e Mountain out of the 5 that were built to still be
operational Today.
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| There are actually two coasters inside Space Mountain's
white dome. The one on the left is named Alpha. The right one is named Omega.
Fans have always disputed which is faster, however neither track is faster.
In fact, both tracks are mirror images, differing only by about ten feet of
straight track on the end of one. The reason why the above statistics show a
varying speed is because the trains are much lighter than most roller
coasters. They only hold a maximum of 3 people per car, 6 people total.
Because they are so light, the temperature of the track has a surprisingly
noticeable effect on the tracks. In the morning, when Space Mountain hasn't
been running for very long, the track is cold, and the grease on the track
is thick, actually slowing down the trains. After a few hours of full
operation, Space Mountain's track has heated up; making the grease thinner,
and it serves it's purpose as a lubricant, making the wheels run along the
track much faster.
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| At one time, Space Mountain actually did have a single rider line. |
| Space Mountain has a rail separating its one main queue into two lines. Originally,
each line was for it's respective coaster, Alpha in the left line and Omega in
the right. Later, the right line was changed into a single rider line. However
this did not last long. Since Space Mountain's queue was already split into two
lines, it was the perfect attraction for Disney to try out their new FASTPASS
system on. Disney's FASTPASS system quickly became popular, and has been used on
many other headliner attractions at Disney parks. Because of the popularity of
Space Mountain's FASTPASS line, there has been no attempt to put a single rider
line back into the attraction.
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Located in central Florida, Disney World receives too much annual rainfall to justify outdoor roller coasters.
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| The designers melded the idea of Disneyland's Matterhorn with the "Spaceport" concept described below. |
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The Space Mountain concept actually dates back to Walt's time; in the mid 1960's the plan was to create a new corner of Tomorrowland at Disneyland, with a "SpacePort" theme. However, the plans never took hold at Disneyland, and the Space Mountain ride would first see its application in Florida (who needed an indoor ride). The Spaceport idea involved part of the ride outdoors atop the mountain, then diving into the blackness within. However, possibly due to the weather conditions in Orlando, this idea never materialized.
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The track itself is gray with red and yellow stripes located at the sensor locations.
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Originally, Space Mountain was sponsored by RCA. When exiting, you walked past dioramas of "homes of tomorrow" in which people were using "advanced technology" such as videodisc players and videophones. It was a classic 70's version of "the future." Over time, RCA replaced the videodisc player with whatever they were trying to sell at the time. (Remember, when Disney World first opened, almost every ride had a commercial sponsor, with some type of advertising segment of the ride). Their show was called the Home of Future Living.
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After Orlando's success, Disney obviously didn't want to tinker with a working concept so all other Space Mountains remained largely indoors. After 1995, Federal Express became the sponsor to Space Mountain, and they installed a lobby for use by Fed-Ex employees who were visitors to WDW -- you can come in here, relax, and jump to the head of the line if you work for Fed-Ex.
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There were fans a few years back that were placed in front of some mist hoses to blow on you, but this was only on the main lift and the fans were turned off permanently because of the alternate problems we were having with the moisture on the track itself and also on the ride sensors which tells us where the trains are at any given moment.
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