Mountains in Space

Along the outside of the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters building is this mural, dramatically depicting various spacecraft in flight. It's designed to mirror the Star Tours mural across the way, but it also puts an interesting spin on an old Tomorrowland story. The image shows Star Command ships blasting through space. We're also shown enormous space stations resembling none other than Space Mountain. Look closely, and you can even see little passenger rockets flying in and out of the docking bay.

Space Mountain opened in Tomorrowland in 1977 (after a successful 1975 launch at Walt Disney World). It was conceived as a futuristic version of the Matterhorn, but with a story line that positioned it as Tomorrowland's space port.

The interior of Space Mountain further establishes this story, as guests board their rockets inside the large docking bay. A cargo transport is docked overhead, and you can see a star field through the forward windows.

When Space Mountain at Disneyland reopened in 2005 after a lengthy refurbishment, the story was enhanced with additional effects in the docking bay and on the ride itself. It was also at that time that the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters mural debuted. Tying it all together, the queue passages leading into Space Mountain were dressed as corridors and air locks within Space Station 77.

The temptation is to hurry through this space and get to the ride as quickly as possible. Slow down to read the graphics, though, and you'll be rewarded. In addition to those details which support and enhance the story, you'll also come across this bit of Hidden Disney. The mention of Captain J. Hench refers to John Hench, the legendary Imagineer responsible for the design of the Space Mountain attractions here and around the world.