Space Mountain Guidebook

History


http://www.wdwhistory.com/index.php?title=Space_Mountain

It was built in 1975 and ... that article pretty much covers it. :)

Numbers


The ride has thirty rockets inside. Fifteen for each track. The rockets are numbered 1 - 31. Disney was afraid that no one would ever want to ride in rocket thirteen so they skipped the number. Each rocket has six seats and is split in have by a joint making turning easier. The rocket would look something like this. - - - / - - - the slash being about a foot of space. Each rocket seats exactly six Guests at a time. One Guest to each seat.

Guests are required to be at least 44 inches tall to ride Space Mountain. This is a little taller than the other two Mountains in the Magic Kingdom because it's the only ride to require Guests to seat single passengers. It's heart breaking to tell little ones that they can't ride, but we do it because it's a  hazard for them to ride.

Loading and Unloading


Most of the time we have about a minute to get six Guests into line and onto the rockets. Occasionally if there are fewer Guests we have 30-45 seconds. Surprising, I know. The reason there is less time when we have fewer Guests is because there is only one person doing the job and the rockets are going out every thirty seconds.

Guests line up side by side with their parties, the gates open, they step into the rocket, lower themselves all the way to a seated position, and then pull the lap bars all the way down. The lap bars do not move on their own. The rocket is advanced by a Cast Member and another Cast Member asks the Guests to pull up on the lap bar. This is to make sure that the lap bars are locked. It's not to scare Guests.

The hardest part of the ride is unloading. Hardest part. For some reason the rockets are not built to be easy to get out of. I can't tell you how to get out of them because it's an individual thing. I've figured out but if you're a first time rider it's super complicated.

That's all I can think of tonight. :) I hope you'll all visit Space Mountain someday!