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Space Mountain - The Ride

Sections: Specials | Pictures | Soundtrack | Tips & Tricks | Facts & Figures

Specials

Ride Video
The following ride video was taped in 1997. Camera: Standard VHS-C. spacevideo [6.5MB]
Taped by Tom Morrow


Interesting Perspective
This video was taped during the first early hours of 1 Jan 2000 using the nightshot-feature of a Sony DV-cam. The camera's target is not aimed out of the train, but on the face of the fearless camera man Harald!
hh_ride01.mpg [2:08 MPEG1 3.4MB]
Taped by Harald Hecht on 1.1.2000


High Quality Live Sound Recording!!!
This high quality live recording of a whole Space Mountain ride was taped using a DAT recorder and an external microphone by recording expert Christian Englert! By later editing the track in his studio Christian could eliminate unwanted noises and yet increase the Stereo effect. Tip: Listen to it in your car using 4 speakers!
ce_spacemountain.mp3 [2:51 MP3 2.6MB]
Recorded by Christian Englert


Some textual descriptions of the ride (selected excerpts from the Reports-section)




Pictures

In the Cannon
Notice: The second picture is a view DOWN the cannon!
photo by Nicolas


Blue Moon Mining company
photo by Nicolas


Entering the Atmosphere
Ever noticed these colourful stripes next to you just before entering the Electro de Velocitor?
photo by Nicolas


Riding with the lights on
Screenshots from the Documentary


Riding with the lights on
Screenshots from the Documentary


The Blue Moon Mining Company
The text says: "Col. Impey Barbicane's Blue Moon Mining Company"


Another picture of Blue Moon


Another Mining-Company-shot
by Nicolas


On Lift B ...
This picture of (probably) Jules Verne can be seen when you are on the second lifthill. Notice the camera at the left!
by Nicolas


The Moon
video-captured and perspective-corrected by FeLIX


Larger picture of the moon


MOM
Riding through MOM, the "Mother of Meteorites"


Entering the Electro de Velocitor




Soundtrack

The music in the trains
The music was written by movie composer Steve Bramson, who won an Emmy for his work with Steven Spielberg. The music is a sort of mix of John William's themes for Jurassic Park, E.T, and Star Wars, and it was finally recorded by an orchestra in Hollywood, just 10 days before the ride officially opened! The Local Control Unit, or LCU for short, was installed on the trains by John Groper, senior audio and video Engineer. The music is controlled by "WDI Digital Sound Source and sequencer" software on a laptop PC, that is kept in the back of the trains. The music is stored digitally, in solid state form, on small plastic flash memory cards. Each of these cards can hold roughly 20MB of data. The music for the ride is divided up into musical layers. As the trains roar along the track their exact position is plotted, by infrared sensors. A computer receives this information and triggers off the appropriate section of music, automatically adjusting the playback speed, to synchronize the musical score with key elements of the show.
Reported by Alan Taff, 9.3.1996


FINALLY HERE IT IS!!!
The COMPLETE Space Mountain Ride Soundtrack in excellent stereo quality:
SpaceMountainTheme.mp3 [2:23 MP3 2.2MB]
(c) Disney


Differences ...
Let me tell you it's NOT the EXACT music of the Space Mountain's trains. If you hear the seconds 00:25 to 00:28, you will notice that these seconds don't exist in the real version you can hear in SM ...
Reported by Nicolas, 14.8.1999


Screams ...


See also Soundtrack-Rumours for interesting news about the probable availability of the soundtrack ...


Space Mountain track on the new CD
The new CD is called "Une Journée à Disneyland Paris" (EDDA010-2). Unfortunately track 18, "Space Mountain", 5:27 long, is NOT the original ride soundtrack but a slower orchestral version of the same theme.
Reported by FeLIX, 14.7.1999


Comparing Rock'n Roller Coaster to Space Mountain
Having an Aerosmith soundtrack play along as you ride works well. However, I didn't think it was a patch on having a full orchestral score - perfectly synchronised to the ride - play along with you. The SM soundtrack lifts the whole experience for me, and I just didn't get that feeling on the RnR Coaster.
Reported by Robert Rees, 15.9.1999




Tips & Tricks

If you want to do the ride a lot of times, try to go at a very calm day (normal weekday, not a holiday), and enter Space Mountain some time right before closing time. When you are lucky, and cast members are working fast, they have the loading area not enough filled to fill up all the cars. The when you have to leave, look for empty seats, smile very very nice to the cast member that is standing next to the exit side and ask if you may take the empty seat. Do not loose any time. Mostly, they won't make any objections. Hop in and there you go again.
Then, if after closing time (at 20.00 h mostly in quiet periods), try to convince other people sitting in the train to make a lot of screaming and applause and "Hey-Ho-Hey-Ho-Hey-Ho" shouting when entering the station again. Sometimes, cast members will feel so good that they let your train do another ride (they have to park all the trains one by one, and they can choose which one first, so you make them choose YOURS as the LAST to park.
On 6th of Octber 1999 at 20.00, our train managed to go 7 times ON A ROW, without anyone quitting! So we entered the station, applaused, asked for another ride, and CM let us ride again (and again, and again...). Combining the first trick and the second, I managed that day to ride Space Mountain 11 times in succession during 28 minutes. I think this can almost be a record. Start was at 19.50, end at 20.18 and the whole DLP park was empty. When stopping in the station, I heard one of the CM saying to another (with a big smile, and after our 4th or 5th ride): "They just don't WANT to leave, let them do it again".
By the way, I sat on different seats again, and I noticed that the ride seemed indeed a little more smooth than 1 month ago. However, the last car and seat in the back right was as bumpy as always...
After some time and several rides to the moon, I always get a lot of bruises, esp on the knees indeed. Must be one of the few negative topics on SM.
Reported by Paul Gobert, 2.11.1999




Facts & Figures

The big meteorite we go through is called MOM (Mother of Meteorites).
Reported by Thomas Bardenat, 7.7.1997


When Space Mountain is out of order, the technical crew tests zone by zone the attraction... from the end to the begining. (Zone 8 to zone 1, it seems)
Reported by Thomas Bardenat, 7.7.1997


Trip time		2:18
Cycle time		2:57
Thrill elements		360° degree "sidewinder" loop
			"corkscrew" loop 180 degree
			"tongue" inversion (horseshoe)
Peak height		31 meters
Length of catapult	60 meters
Length of Lift B	24 meters
Number of tracks	1
Length of Track (Ride)	1000 meters
Total length		1100 meters (including storage and station)
Number of block zones	7
Number of brake zones	2 + 2 stations
Number of lifts		2: Catapult ("Lift A"), Pacer ("Lift B")
Average speed		14 m/s = 50 km/h = 31 mph
Maximum speed		21 m/s = 76 km/h = 47 mph
Ride Control		PC based message generation system
PLC computers		2 Allen-Bradley 5/40L
			(uninterruptable power supply)

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