Space Mountain reopened at Disneyland Park on October 27 following a five-week closure for refurbishment, debuting several new (and previously unannounced) projection effects upon blast-off.
New Projection Effects Added to Space Mountain at Disneyland Park
Several new projections have been added to the attraction, with most of them appearing in the early portion of the ride before its high-speed sequence commences. The new effects appear after the previously present black hole-like projection at the end of the ride’s tunnel portion.
The new effects come as a bit of a surprise, as while the ride was recently refurbished, no significant alterations or additions were anticipated for the attraction during its brief general maintenance period.
The new projections range in subject matter depicted, some showcasing galaxies while others depict multi-colored space dust. A few of the projections, namely the blue space dust effect that guests encounter immediately after leaving the tunnel, move, with the dust expanding before fading into space. The other effects feature minimal movement or are completely stationary.
The galactic projection at the end of the tunnel portion of the ride was previously the only effect of the sort on the normal version of the attraction.
Watch our full ride through of the refurbished attraction below:
Space Mountain initially closed for refurbishment on September 18. Most scaffolding came down in mid-October ahead of its planned October 26 reopening, but that date was ultimately pushed back to October 27. Aside from the new projection effects, the attraction itself remains largely the same.
The new projection effects are not limited to the attraction itself, as projection mapping has also been re-introduced to the exterior of the Space Mountain attraction building. While walking through the queue, we noticed new projectors installed atop the buildings surrounding the mountain.
On the night of October 27, we noticed that projection mapping had illuminated the Space Mountain attraction building in vivid shades of purple, yellow, and red. The Space Mountain exterior has previously been lit using projection mapping for special occasions (specifically during times at which the former Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy Halloween-centric seasonal overlay ran), but it’s been several years since the effects have been consistently utilized.
Space Mountain
The original version of Space Mountain opened in 1975 at Magic Kingdom. It proved so popular that Disney constructed other versions at Disneyland Park, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland. Shanghai Disneyland is the only Disney ‘castle park’ with no Space Mountain, with the park instead opting to build the original TRON Lightcycle Run, which has seen been replicated at Magic Kingdom.
Each version of the ride is slightly different, but they all take guests on a high-speed adventure through the iconic pyramid-like building.
The Disneyland Paris rendition of the ride was originally De la Terre à la Lune, inspired by “From the Earth to the Moon” by Jules Verne. Both the Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland versions later received the “Star Wars” Hyperspace Mountain overlay. The overlay was supposed to be temporary but ultimately became permanent. This overlay also sometimes comes to the Disneyland version of the ride.
Tokyo Disneyland broke ground on its completely new version of the ride in May 2023. The old version remains open for now and the new version will open in 2027. You can check out our latest construction update here.
Will you be checking out the new projection effects on Space Mountain at Disneyland Park? Let us know in the comments.
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