We’re digging into the history of Mission: SPACE at EPCOT and its uniquely intense ride experience.

You’ll find plenty of thrill rides across Disney World, but perhaps none is quite as notorious as Mission: SPACE. That’s for good reason: This EPCOT attraction has a unique kind of magic. It can make any guest feel queasy.

Mission: SPACE holds the honor of being the most intense ride at Disney World. After all, it’s the only thing you’ll ride that includes barf bags for guests. And it’s also where you’ll find warning after warning in the queue, with multiple signs recommending guests back out if they aren’t sure they can handle the intensity. 

How did EPCOT wind up being the theme park that’s home to Disney World’s most intense ride? Well, it’s thanks to the history of Mission: SPACE – and everything that led up to its opening back in 2003.

Space-Based Attractions Were Always Part of the Plan for EPCOT

Photo by Cliff Wang

While the original plans for Walt Disney’s EPCOT were all about an experimental community of the future versus the more “traditional” Disney theme park it is today (though I’d argue it’s still weirder than most!), space was always part of the plan.

Well, kind of. A Space Pavilion was proposed for EPCOT back in 1977. It was meant to celebrate both early pioneers and modern space travelers and triumphs, along with a look at what the future might hold for both space technology and exploration. A “huge, interstellar ‘Space Vehicle’” was proposed as an attraction for this area of EPCOT, which would take guests to the “outer frontiers of the universe.”

EPCOT’s Space Pavilion actually got underway, and Disney Imagineers even worked with heavy hitters like John DeCuir, Academy Award-winning art director, and Ray Bradbury,  renowned science fiction author,  in designing this future space. 

But, like so many of Disney’s grand theme park plans, the Space Pavilion never quite got off the ground. 

Decades passed before space exploration returned to EPCOT. Future World was built, and other, non-space-inspired attractions were added. 

In 1999, Horizons, a suspended omnimover-style dark ride that took guests through scenes that suggested what life might be like in the 21st century, closed permanently. The 21st century was nearing closer – and so too was Mission: SPACE.

It took more than a year after Horizons closed for Disney to announce its plans to revisit those Space Pavilion ideas and build Mission: SPACE. 

Mission to Mars Also Influenced Mission: SPACE

In addition to being influenced by those old EPCOT plans from the 1970s, Mission: SPACE was also influenced by Mission to Mars. And yes, I’m referring both to the 2001 movie and the former attraction at both Disneyland and Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.

As Oh My Disney put it back in 2016, Mission to Mars is the “ride that inspired the movie that inspired the ride.” Originally an attraction at Disneyland (which was first known as Rocket to the Moon and then later Flight to the Moon), Mission to Mars opened in 1975 at both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. The attraction took guests on a space flight to Mars, avoiding meteors and black holes along the way.

Though the attraction closed in 1992 at Disneyland and 1993 at Magic Kingdom, it got new life just a few years later in the late ‘90s. Then-chairman of the Walt Disney Studios Dick Cook was searching for theme park attractions to turn into films – and Mission to Mars was chosen.

Mission to Mars premiered in 2000, and the science fiction adventure film is more tangentially related to the former attraction than anything else. It does take audiences on a trip to Mars, as the story follows the members of the first crewed Mars exploration mission as things go awry.

When Disney announced Mission: SPACE in April 2000,  just one month after the film’s debut, the connection between the two was tenuous, but clear. In fact, you might’ve caught this little hint in the original press release revealing the attraction: “Guests who accept the mission will engage in a one-of-a-kind astronaut experience that launches them into a simulated space adventure – from pulse-racing liftoff to the sensations of traveling through outer space on a mission to Mars.” 

Mission: SPACE Was Designed With Authenticity in Mind

Photo by Cliff Wang

When Imagineers set out to create Mission: SPACE, they weren’t exactly planning to develop Disney World’s most intense ride. It happened naturally, thanks to their efforts to make this mission to Mars as authentic as possible. 

Mission: SPACE is meant to simulate astronaut training as guests prepared for the first crewed mission to Mars (sound familiar, anyone?). Guests board a space shuttle, where they experience the challenges faced by real astronauts during liftoff, exiting Earth’s atmosphere, and exploring the solar system while feeling weightless. They also take on assigned roles of a navigator, pilot, commander, or engineer and perform tasks during the mission.  

To create a realistic simulation, Imagineers worked with former NASA advisors, astronauts, and scientists. Disney also partnered with Compaq for the ride’s technology. The end result: A multiple-arm centrifuge that achieves the illusion of acceleration with spinning and tilting. All of that spinning creates intense G-forces of up to 2.5G – more than twice the force of gravity here on Earth.

Mission: SPACE Did Ultimately Get Toned Down

Ultimately, Disney World’s most intense ride did wind up being a bit too intense for way too many guests. It was so common for guests to get sick from the G-forces of Mission: SPACE that motion sickness bags were added shortly after it opened.

And by 2006, Disney finally tamed down Mission: SPACE. Well, not entirely. The original ride got a new version added into the mix: The Green Mission. The original mission to Mars became the Orange Mission.

While the Orange Mission remains impressively intense, the Green Mission takes guests on a space flight around the Earth instead of to Mars. The centrifuge doesn’t spin on the Green Mission, so those nauseating G-forces are completely eliminated, though there is some pivoting and tilting. It’s far less intense, offering a much milder spin (pun intended) on what launching into space feels like. 

So, if you’ve always wanted to experience Disney World’s most intense ride, you’ll still find it at EPCOT – and you don’t have to take the chicken exit if all of the pre-ride warnings scare you away from taking a mission to Mars.