What Epcot’s “Space” pavilion was almost like

Sometimes I have to wonder: Would it be better not to know?

To explain: As regular JHM readers already know, this website semi-pseudo-sort-of specializes in stories about roads that aren’t taken. As in: movies that don’t get made, attractions that don’t get built, theme parks that never quite made it off the drawing board.

And — given all the appreciative e-mail that we receive here at the site — I have to assume that you folks really like these stories. Which is why we’ll try & keep telling them.

But — that said — every so often I get handed a story from someone-in-the-know at the Mouse House that just … hurts. By that I mean: You learn about a project that was planned for the Disney theme parks that was so innovative, so entertaining, so incredible … that it just boggles your mind to think that they didn’t actually build the thing. Or — worse — replaced that proposed addition with another project that was so obviously inferior to the original concept.

“What am I talking about?,” you ask. Epcot’s “Space” pavilion.

Now — before we get started here — let me say that this is NOT going to be yet another article that beats up on “Mission: Space.” I mean, there’s already enough of those out there on the Web. Hell, back in July of 2003, I actually wrote a few of them myself.

No, this article is going to be the first ever (for the Internet, anyway) detailed description of what WDI initially wanted to do with Epcot’s “Space” pavilion. As told by someone who actually worked on this project in the early 1990s.

No, I can’t tell you this guy’s name. What I can tell you is that this gentleman and I struck up a conversation a few weeks back. Right after he dropped me a line in response to that “Why For?” that I wrote back on January 21st. Where I talked about the simulated spacewalk that was supposed to have been the feature attraction at this “Horizons” redo.

This gent (Let’s call him “Alan.” In honor of Alan Shepard, the first American to journey into outer space) had some awfully interesting things to say about that spacewalk attraction:

A little background on the “space walk” attraction that was proposed for the Horizon pavilion. That was going to be one of several attractions that were going to be part of the initial Space Pavilion concept (much as Wonders of Life Pavilion had multiple venues under one roof). You entered the pavilion and found yourself around a campfire with a projected starfield above to put in mind of ancient man studying the heavens. After a simple pre-show here, and then a cybrolator-like transitional scene, you were delivered to a space station orbiting earth. The space station was the hub for the other adventures. You probably know all this.

The space walk adventure was a journey around the outside of the “space station”, giving riders a chance to look into space and peer into the “non-public” areas of the space station operations (crew quarters, lab, etc.). As you correctly described riders would have been suspended from an overhead track. Guests would only be able to control yaw and roll, however, not pitch.

Copyright 1990 The Walt Disney Company

The main reason Imagineering arrived at the space walk ride was “accountaneering.” At the time Horizons was first built, the depreciation schedule for the building was established. In the early 90s when the Space Pavilion was proposed, the company was less than halfway through the depreciation schedule. If they tore down the building and started over, the company would have had to write off the remaining value of the building–which would show as a loss and impact company net income.

And here’s the kicker, they insisted that any such loss be added as part of the estimate of project cost. (Somehow they don’t account for the cost of having an obsolete and frequently closed attraction occupying real estate in the park).

So, under those rules, the Imagineers could avoid some of the accountaneering costs by re-using as much of the hard assets of the Horizons building as possible. So the space walk was an effort to re-use the existing Horizons rides systems, which consisted of moving, three-person booths suspended from an overhead rail. The booths would be removed, as would every other suspended arm in order to create sufficient space between space walkers.

As we know, none of this ever happened.

I’m guessing enough time passed that the depreciation issues became less significant. The knockdown of most of the Horizons building was an option unavailable to the original team.

Now — of course — when someone like this comes along, you don’t just let them walk away. You immediately hit them up with additional questions, with the hope that they then might fork over even more info.

As it turns out, Alan was very gracious. Also very chatty. Which is why — in response to the follow-up questions that I sent him — he sent me back this e-mail.

You wanted to know more about the initial take on the Space Pavilion. This was done in the early 1990s, and it eventually got set aside. I think the current Mission: Space was started from scratch years later. As far as I know there is really no connection between the two–other than occupying the same real estate.

Space Pavilion was going to preserve as much of the Horizons building as possible and the Horizons ride system. This was to satisfy the “accountaneering” concerns I related earlier. There would be a new facade (the features of which I cannot recall) and antennae and satellite dishes (non-functional of course) attached to the roof.

We enter at the northwest corner of the building (adjacent to Wonders of Life). Inside the bulding we wander through a forest (somewhat similar to Universal’s ET ride). Then we come to a clearing where an amphitheater surrounds a campfire. Overhead is a planetarium-like sky. This becomes a sound and light show designed to evoke our wonder about space, connecting us to early man’s earliest yearnings.

From there we proceed to a space transit station where we board space pods. During a brief show similar to the Living Seas cybrolators, we are shot into space to enter the future and dock with a large space station in earth orbit.

The doors to the pod open and we enter the large central hub of the space station. It’s a large hall. A huge window at the far end looks out into space. The stars move as we turn through our orbit. The center of the hub features a large round window in the floor surrounded by metal railing that allows us to look down on earth. The area around the window hosts “Mission: Earth”–a series of interactive stations (think Wonders of Life) that teach us about how space exploration helps us learn about earth.

Copyright 1990 The Walt Disney Company

Just off the hub is a theater (two auditoriums, alternating the same show) that feature a 3-D experience that deals with the physics of the universe. We go on a virtual voyage though the universe, experiencing both its beauty and its severity. It concludes with a close-up look at a supernova. PERHAPS TOO CLOSE!!

And then there is the Spacewalk. At the preshow we learn how to operate our EVA units. Each unit is suspended from an overhead track on a continuously moving belt. It has a seat and a four-point safety harness. Our feet dangle free. A joystick allows us to control yaw and roll. We can turn completely around or roll completely upside-down. If we want, we can ride backwards facing a friend to share the experience. A moving walk allows us to board and secure ourselves while the units keep moving. The ride circles us around the exterior of the space station. We have views into space (occasionally obstructed by appendages on the exterior of the space station) and into the interior of the space station. We can see some of the public spaces filled with our fellow visitors, and we see other “off limits” spaces we wouldn’t otherwise see. These give us a better picture of life on the station.

All the attractions return us to the hub. We can stay as long as we want. I cannot recall if there was a food service facility there–or retail, but I’d like to think so.

When we are ready to leave, a second set of space pods returns us to Epcot’s Future World. (During the effort to get the project funded, the second set of pods were eventually cut out of the project. In that version of the attraction, you just left the space station by walking through a doorway into the Florida sun. Which I thought that was a tad inelegant.)

I’d like to think that sometime in the future “Mission: Space” could be expanded to include some ot these elements. But that’s almost certainly a pipe dream.

Doesn’t that sound snazzy? More to the point, do you now understand what I was talking about at the very start of this article? Doesn’t it sort of hurt to know about what we almost got? This majestic, magical “Space” pavilion? Only to have the “accountaneers” whittle away at this wonderful Future World addition until all that was left was “Mission: Space”?

Your thoughts?

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Speaking of missing things … If you live in the Minneapolis area, remember that today’s the big day for “Dream On Silly Dreamer.” There are five FREE screenings of this great little movie being shown this afternoon & this evening at the Crown Theater at 1, 2:30, 4, 7 and 8:00 p.m.

So please don’t miss out on what could be your one-and-only chance to see this amazing motion picture. If you’re a fan of traditional animation (Particularly the kinds of movies that the Walt Disney Company used to make), then you really owe it to yourself to see this movie.

See you there, okay?