Space Mountain - Backstage

Well, work is done since April 2005. Space Mountain underwent an extensive refurbishment. The changes to the building and the new effects were that large-scale, that Disneyland Paris even speaks of a new attraction. Following our backstage-report, we give you a brief summary of all important improvements and changes of the "mountain of all mountains".

"Welcome on board, Space Travellers" As a so called "Space Mountain Fan", I already hear this well known announcement in my ears, as soon as I catch a glimpse of the silhouette of this bronze and golden glistening volcano in the distance.

It's Thursday around 7 o'clock in the morning. I sit in a coach, joyful and anxious, together with a group of ten other participants, and we all drive to a side entrance of the Disneyland Park. A two hours backstage tour to one of the most impressing Disney attractions awaits us: "Space Mountain: De la terre a la Lune".

How is it that somebody is allowed to take a look behind the scenes at Disney? - you may ask. Well, the Euro Attractions Show makes it possible for their visitors. The EAS is the European version of the IAAPA Show in the United States. During the show, several backstage tours to different attractions at the Disneyland Resort were offered to a limited number of participants. Additionally to the guided tour to "Space Mountain", other backstage tours to the "Rock´n Rollercoaster" or to the "Stunt Show Spectacular" were available. As mentioned before, I'm a so-called 'Space Mountain Fan' and it was a dream come true for me to participate in this backstage tour.

We got out of the coach at a side-entrance of Discoveryland and were greeted by Benoit, our tour guide and a technician of Space Mountain. Everyone was provided with a hard hat and we followed Benoit to a small staircase down to the "cellar" of the building. Unfortunately, it wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the building. Well, a little "Disney Magic" has to be saved, I think. My first look behind the scenes of my favourite-by-heart coaster brought a smile on my face. The first thing I saw was a coffeemaker machine at the end of long hallway with a few cast members sitting at a table next to it. Apparently these were members of the early shift, preparing themselves for the day. A last coffee, before countless guests are shot to the moon.

Through a small door we entered the workshop, were the trains are kept, when the coaster is not in operation. A very practical detail here: the track is at eye-level. It is very easy to have a look underneath every train. What we see is very surprising. One of the novelties of Space Mountain was the onboard sound system. During the ride the passenger hears a music score solely composed for this attraction. According to every segment of the ride, the music changes synchronously to the next cue. The sound system is on a computer without any moving parts, which is installed at the back of every train. The music is digitally stored on memory flashcards. We also could take a look at the charging device for the battery. Another surprise is that the batteries of the trains are charged at every stop at the station. A 15 second quick-charge, while the next passengers are boarding the train.

The second surprise: The synchronisation of the sound system. Just imagine: In the train, the music sounds through six different speakers per seat while riding. At every segment of the track, the appropriate part of the score is played synchronously. Inside the cannon for example, two chords are played, while waiting for the launch. During launch, the music becomes dramatic while later, when the moon is reached, the harmonies indulge in your ears. But, how is all that synchronized? -I imagined the most complicated mechanisms for that. Some radio transmitted signals or some infrared sensors or other technical baubles. Nothing of the sort!

The actual used synchronisation control is as easy as ingenious: The whole soundtrack is separated in parts of different length. The length of these cues corresponds to the length of the associated part of the track. The music is started together with the train. Every single cue is played just to its end. A photocell underneath the train recognizes a piece of reflector foil which is attached at different segments of the track and the sound system switches to the next music cue. In case the train stops at a block break, the part of music would just play to the end and fade out then. The next cue is not started, until the train passes the next piece of reflector foil. The part inside the cannon is slightly different. The music doesn't fade out while waiting for launch, but repeats a short piece of two chords in a loop until the train passes the next reflector foil while launched. This increases tension to a high level. When you take a ride on Space Mountain the next time, just have a look at the track in the station. Maybe you spot the piece of reflector foil there.

Benoit leads us deeper inside the subterranean entanglement of hallways to a room, which looks like a usual server room at first sight. Two rows of racks with all kinds of electronic parts in it fill nearly the whole space. We learned that this is the sound system of the whole attraction. From the background music of the queue line to the loud "Booom" of the cannon, all these sounds are generated and controlled from this room. Next to the racks, thousands of cables are wired into a large switch board. The electric signals from over thousand sensors on the track arrive here, where they are converted into signals for the computer system.

Next to the door of the server room are three pieces of steel cable on a display. One cable is brand new, the second one a little bit fretted and the third one completely worn out. They are illustrative material for the steel cable used inside the winch which shoots the trains up the cannon. A very impressive (or maybe startling) fact is that between "brand new" and "completely worn out" are only about six months of operating time.

Our tour guide opens a small, insignificant door leading inside the heart of Space Mountain. Completely painted black, a huge hall awaits us, where pitch-black tracks running into an inscrutable snarl. Three things immediately attract my attention:

1. The whole inner room of Space Mountain is comfortably heated. All walls are coated with pitch-black and sound-absorbing upholstery.

2. The colour is not a usual "black", but a kind of metallic black, creating amazing effects with the used black-light.

3. The meteoroids allocated inside the whole inner room are not just white-coloured, but have a light-silver colour, which creates a glow in the dark.

In the middle of the room is a huge black block, approx. the size of a usual single-car garage. Benoit explains that this block is the air-conditioning for the whole inner room. Ok, now we all know why it's warm here in space. At the inside, huge supports show, where the cannon is situated outside of the building. Indeed, it looks more like a usual lifthill from the inside. It's a good landmark and you always know where you are situated inside the attraction with just one look at the characteristic supports. We climb up some rambling stairs inside the snarl of tracks, footbridges and railings to the 'Mother of Meteoroids' - MOM. During the ride, the train bores through this huge meteoroid. The associated sound effect comes from a speaker next to the track.

Further on it goes uncounted steps up to the centre of our journey, the moon. Today the space-travellers experience here the explosion of a super-nova instead the grinning moon. On this inclining piece of track, a lot of friction wheels are mounted in the middle of the track. They are used for a block brake as well as for a nearly noiseless and smooth movement of the train towards the moon / the supernova.

To look at things in the bright working light, a lot of small details attract my attentions, which are not recognized on the ride. Next to the track, a direction sign "to the moon" is posted, for example. Or the picture of a small astronaut waves to passing riders. Another not-so-funny detail was apparent: Some signs and props around the track are misused as targets for chewing gum spitting practises. Good, that old chewing gum doesn't shine in the dark. In the nets below the track, a lot of lost items can be found: cigarette packets, hankies, a lot of baseball caps and other headgear. I couldn't spot a mobile phone at the moment, though.

Suddenly, a loud announcement sounded through the building. The attraction will open in 15 minutes. Everybody has to leave the building until then. So, I caught a last glance at the depths of Space Mountain and was fascinated by the huge dimensions of this attraction. Just for your orientation: When you're standing outside of the building, the inner room reaches about 8 more meters down into the ground, before you are at 'basement floor'. From there, the last few meters of track run even deeper into the foundations for a long curve, which heads back up to the 'De-Velocitator', the final brake. When you ride Space Mountain the next time, have a look at the red stripes at the end of the ride (after the Super Nova explosion). Here the train is at the deepest point of the whole track, down inside the basement of the building.

Back inside the neon-lit hallway, we're entering a room without any windows. According to our tour guide, this is the actual heart, the hidden control centre of the attraction. The room is windowless; hence the lights are never turned off here.

The status of the whole attraction is controlled from here. A database holds data of every maintenance and repair work. It is even counted, how often a train runs on the track. Maintenance plans of the track, trains, friction wheels and brakes are created and monitored for compliance. Shift schedules for the employees are created; overnight maintenance work shifts are coordinated from this room and much more. Benoit told us (with proud), that they need only about 24 hours for the exchange of the catapult steel cable. The coaster closes in the evening with the park closure, then the technicians arrive and work the whole night through. On the next day, some test rides are performed. When all lights turn green, the attraction is reopened again on that day.

On the pre-last station of our tour, we entered the cannon from below. The castmembers of Space Mountain call it the catapult. The catapult is the same technology used on aircraft carriers to launch their jet fighters. It works like this: Inside the track is a second pair of track installed, which goes up the launch track. On this track runs a carriage connected to the steel cable (looks like a kind of a pulley). The carriage has a gib head jutting out of the rails and mounts to the train underneath the fourth car. The gib head has a predetermined breaking point. So, for a worst-case scenario, if the train would loose a wheel or would get stuck inside the cannon for any reason, the catapult would not slash the train, but the connection between carriage and train would just break off.

At launch, the steel cable is winded up on a huge cylinder of the winch very quickly. The winch is powered by a powerful electric motor. The electrical switchboard for this motor fills a whole room, situated underground between Nautilus and cannon.

The finish of our tour was the morning opening of the attraction. We could take a closer look at the opening procedures and how the castmembers handle them. And finally we were allowed to take pictures. I took the chance and interviewed Gregory, a castmember working at the station platform this morning. He told me, that he loves roller coasters. At his application at Disneyland Paris, he asked for a job at one of the roller coasters. Disneyland granted his wish. He's working now at Space Mountain or at the Rock´n Roller coaster at the adjacent Walt Disney Studios. I generally had the impression, that all employees at Space Mountain enjoy their work a lot - even backstage. All castmembers were in a friendly mood, open-minded and the smile never left their faces.

As we went into the control room above the station platform, a huge switchboard draw my attention first. This cabinet controls only the status of all doors inside the building. During operating time, nobody is allowed to enter the inner room of the attraction. Very understandable, as we could see, how close the track runs beside the footbridges and paths. Before the first train is let on the circuit, two castmembers walk through the whole building and make sure, that every door is closed. If just one green light is missing on the switchboard, the coaster cannot be put into operation.

We could take an impressive look at the main control panel of the roller coaster. I spotted the old lettering with the name 'Discovery Mountain' on it. That was the project name until the opening of Space Mountain in 1995. It's nine o'clock and the well-known melody sounds from the central plaza. Disneyland Paris is opening its gates. That was the signal for us to say goodbye to our tour guide and to the castmembers. The two hours of our tour just flashed past very quickly. As a special gimmick we could take the first ride of the day at Space Mountain. The ride was - as a speciality- with the lights on.

What changed during the rebuild-phase autumn 2004 until April 2005 at Space Mountain in Disneyland Paris? A lot of stories and rumours went round, what all should change. And a lot did change, indeed...

First of all, the columbiad cannon draws the attention of every regular Space Mountain visitor. The rumours were true: The missile blazes as good as new in the sunshine. Also, the brilliant effects returned. With the sound of a loud BOOOM, a voluminous cloud of vapour sizzles out of the cannon, which recoils again as it was in the beginning. In the last years before the refurbishment, the cannon was not as half as impressive without the steam and recoil, as it was in the very first days of the attraction.

Another novelty can be found at the queuing area: the security video is completely new. Beside the usual health advises, the visitors now hear about, where to leave bags and backpacks (under the seat).

On the way further inside the mountain, a regular visitor spots the slightly changed way of the queue line and a new partition of the 'chicken way'. The whole queue line is covered now, so it's impossible to have a look inside the roller coaster anymore. The new light effects needed a completely dark inner room. But the guests don't stumble through a black tunnel. The walls have a metallic look and are covered with lots of pictures showing stars and space scenes.

The metallic look remained the same in most parts of the building, by the way. The colour just tinted from 'bronze' to dark 'silver'. And the blue colour is now darker, too. Sketches of a trajectory and a supernova are painted on the wall of the 'star room'. Although a few of the former "Victorian Science Fiction" design is visible here, the flair of the stories of one man are missing: Jules Verne.

At the station platform, new gates have been installed at the gateways. Appropriate to the metallic design, they fit very well in the metallic appearance of the station. The trains also improved their look. The seats with the leathern headrests have been exchanged with new seats and restraints made of plastics.

A huge loss for me: the announcement "welcome on board, space travellers" doesn't exist anymore. In fact, the whole genial former soundtrack has been replaced by a more modern music. The new soundtrack may be appropriate to the ride, has stirring parts and, as the old music, is synchronized to the track. But on the other hand, the new soundtrack doesn't achieve the same voluminous 'Wow-effects' as the impressively orchestrated old score by Steve Bramson did.

The train has barely left the station and enters the tunnel, which leads to the cannon, when the darkness inside is very obvious. The onride-photo is taken at the same place as before the renovation just before the train enters the cannon. Another surprise comes inside the cannon. The train isn't winched up to almost half of the cannon anymore. It stops down at the bottom, when the carriage of the catapult mounts to the train. Some new light effects are flashing and a voice counts backwards until launch. To draw comparison: In the old launch position, it was never predictable, when the launch would happen. Now the launch doesn't surprise the riders because of the countdown. Unfortunately, the launch looses power very quick, so the train passes the peak and dives into the mountain at a remarkable slow speed. But then the new effects take over their part. During the first drop, the riders realize in the corner of the eye, that the train is chased by a meteoroid. The train can just escape the crash by going up into the sidewinder loop. Some more very nice light effects appear during the ride. At one part, the train seems to fly through a nebulous star field, which turns out to be an illusion made out of light. The Rendezvous with the moon is now replaced by the encounter with an exploding supernova. This is done by a huge projection and sound effect. Now riders realise, why the whole queuing area has been covered up completely lightproof. The following flight back to earth (when the train runs down through the basements) has a last nice light effect. The train rides through a spinning red spiral of light and it seems that it's spinning inside the spiral. Another item from the good old Jules Verne days survived: The 'Electro De-Velocitator' still breaks the trains bravely down to a slow pace.

The renovations of the cannon, the trains and the queue line have been very necessary and turned out very well. The light effects on the ride are very impressing and hit the attention of the riders. Unfortunately, through all the modernizations, above all the new music, the whole Jules Verne theme disappeared from Discoveryland. Space Mountain is now a well themed roller coaster in the dark with nice ride effects. But the ride doesn't tell anymore Victorian Science Fiction stories.

A huge deficiency is the ride comfort. There have been no changes done on the tracks. And assumably only the wheels have been replaced on the bogies. The ride itself is still very rough and uncomfortably jerking. And if that's not enough, we had to experience the music being too quiet on some seats or even a complete sound-failure. Such things deeply deteriorate the whole ride experience.

The whole Jules Verne theme at Discoveryland has been dropped. It's a pity, we think. The Jules Verne design and the Victorian style Science Fiction theme were the things that made Discoveryland in Paris unique and a big difference to all the other Tomorrowlands in other Disney parks around the world.