RCA (1975–1993)[1] FedEx (1994–2004) Space Mountain is an outer space-themed, indoor roller coaster in Tomorrowland located at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom theme park in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando.

The dark ride, which opened on January 15, 1975, is the original version of the iconic attraction that has since been replicated at other Disney theme park locations worldwide, with the exception of Shanghai Disneyland Resort.

Walt Disney originally conceived the idea of a space-themed roller coaster for Disneyland following the success of Matterhorn Bobsleds in 1959.

Space Mountain has undergone a number of changes since its opening, including new ride trains in 1989 and 2009, as well as incremental upgrades to incorporate modern roller coaster technology.

[3] In 1964, Walt first approached designer John Hench with his idea for a new attraction that would be the focal point of a renovated Tomorrowland planned for 1967.

[3] Originally called "Space Voyage" with concept artwork by John Hench, Clem Hall, George McGinnis, and Herb Ryman.

[5] The initial concept was to have four separate tracks, but the technology available at the time, combined with the amount of space required versus that which was available within Disneyland, made such a design impossible.

[5] It is commonly believed that WED had put aside the design of Space Mountain indefinitely after Walt Disney's death and revived the project after the Magic Kingdom's early success.

[6] However press releases, concept models, and preview brochures as early as 1969 feature Space Mountain as a headlining attraction coming to Walt Disney World.

[10] The interior of the structure, the queue area, the tracks of the roller coaster, and the post-show each went through a large number of various design changes before the current layout was selected.

Instead, it was placed outside the park's perimeter berm, roughly due east of Cinderella Castle in Fantasyland, with a tunnel, called the "star corridor", under the Walt Disney World Railroad tracks installed for people to reach it, while Carousel of Progress opened in the originally planned location.

The line then dips into the "star tunnel", which takes guests under the Walt Disney World Railroad and into the cone containing the ride.

The queue then begins to ascend to a second floor, and passes by "space windows" in the walls featuring planets, astronauts, and a model of the spaceship from the lift hill.

Previously, stand-by riders could participate in various 90-second long video games that were hosted by a robot that operates Space Mountain's mission control center.

A repetitive warping sound signifies an energy charge as the riders roll towards a blue orb (originally a mirror prior to 2009).

Once at the top, the trains then make a small and quick dip before plunging into numerous twists and turns as they travel around the mountain in near-complete darkness, including the coaster tracks' steepest drop of 39 degrees.

Dedicated to the men and women whose skills, sacrifice, courage and teamwork opened the door to the exploration of man's exciting new frontier...outer space.

Inside, riders entered the spacious lobby, which did not feature the current mural of the Milky Way, but was simple black and blue walls with various yellow and orange angular designs.

The left entrance wall still featured the RCA logo, but a new font was selected for the phrase "Space Mountain", still bold, but was more angular, and now colored white.

The right hand entrance wall was now used for signage and simply had the ride name in a tall, thin, orange font, that was meant to reflect the architecture of the New Tomorrowland.

In the queue, while guests waited for their rockets, monitors above them played the futuristic but funny "SMTV" video, which featured Space Mountain mission control notifying them on the status of the vehicles and channel surfing to find a newscast to keep them up to date on what's happening around the galaxy.

[18][19] The underlying musical score was composed by Mike Brassell,[20][21] who also serves as the current narrator for Living with the Land and was the former voice of the PeopleMover from 2009 to 2022.

From 1975 to 1985, the entrance and exit building had overhead speakers playing the big band and orchestral portion of RCA's song "Here's to the Future and You".

The main version of "We've Come So Far", which included sung lyrics, was heard in the exit tunnel until RCA's sponsorship ended.

While aboard the moving platform, riders pass multiple rooms and displays, many of which received extensive changes in 2009 along with the rest of the ride.

The RYCA-1 sets went through minor re-decoration when FedEx took over sponsorship, and the plot of the show revolved around sending packages across spatial distances using teleportation.

The third diorama saw the most significant changes, adding figures of astronauts excavating alien fossils and teleporting them to a base on another planet where a robot dog named the "lab retriever" received the package.

The post-show remained the same until 2009, with only the narration being removed and replaced with a soundtrack based on Michael Giacchino's score for the updated version of Disneyland's Space Mountain.

In addition, the ride retained some of its notable post-show features while still receiving an update, including the monitors displaying the riders as they pass by the overhead cameras.

The green screen room was replaced by a set of switchback ramps up to a slightly differently placed exit into the gift shop.