[...] Space Mountain now dominates Disneyland Paris. It's more impressive, and a lot bigger, than Sleeping Beauty's Castle which now seems somewhat over-shadowed by it. Space Mountain is THE centerpiece of Disneyland Paris. It's 141 feet tall, and it's 203 feet in diameter. It's so huge, in fact, that it can be seen from miles away, when driving through the French countryside, to the resort. And it seems like, wherever you are in the Disneyland Paris theme park, you can see (and hear the muffled blast of) Space Mountain. You can see it in Main Street, you can see it in Frontierland, you can see it from the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house in Adventureland, and you can see it in Fantasyland. But, the best view of Space Mountain is in Discoveryland.
The ride's full title is: "Space Mountain From the Earth to the Moon," because it's based on the book by Jules Verne. Although similar to the exteriors of Space Mountain in DL and WDW, this one is far more amazing.
Space Mountain sits in the heart of Discoverland surrounded by large angular rocks,and rising above the large boiling lagoon that houses the Nautilus attraction.
It is so intricate, and so breath taking. It's more like a machine than a building, and it's been covered with a film of "oil" and "soot" to make it look that way. It's the same shape as the old Space Mountains. It's basically a cone. But this cone isn't plain white concrete. This cone is bronze, with dull turquoise metal-work wrapped all over it.
This cone is metal, with rivets, and huge bolts. And this cone has an enormous, immensely detailed, chunky cannon resting on the side of it called Columbiad. Every 36 seconds this cannon recoils and, with a thunderous bang, and an explosion of smoke, it fires a train of 24 brave passengers up the side of the mountain, towards the moon. Wow!
[...] Everything about Space Mountain is designed to look Victorian. It represents the Victorian era's fascination with space travel, and their turn-of-the-century, interpretations of the future.
Yet, although it represents a much dated view of the future (i.e. Space travel involving astronauts getting shot out of a cannon) it still manages to look very futuristic. It is much more visually dynamic than the Space Mountains found in DL and WDW. There is so much more to look at. There is so much detail. Plus, there's a story behind it, a very famous story.
[...] Everything on this huge cone, including the cannon, focuses towards the top. The top of Space Mountain is a bundle of striking terra-cotta and turquoise metal work. There a 3 large communication towers that jut into the sky, each surrounded by 3 blue neon rings. There's also a large section of track that curves upwards towards the sky, that is supposed to be a continuation of the track in the cannon.
The effect is meant to make you think that you get shot out of the cannon, and then fly off the track, into the sky. It's a similar idea to the ski jump on the Summit Plummet slide at Blizzard Beach.
If you think the exterior of Space Mountain sounds pretty amazing by day, you should see it at night. At night Space Mountain is a neon fantasy.
There's this great effect each time Columbiad fires. Strobe lighting twinkles along the cannon, and twinkles up through the metal work, and up to the tip of the communication towers, just like pixie dust.