Flight To The Moon Articles

The original Rocket To The Moon in Tomorrowland took guests on simulated lunar flights.The updated Flight To The Moon simulator basically work the same way as its predecessor by showing the receding Earth on one screen and an approaching moon on another but the new journey was much more authentic and technically advanced in addition to accommodating more guests the attraction boasted more and better effects inside the ship including a brief moment of weightlessness and offered views of astronauts on the moon.Even more impressive was an elaborate new Mission Control area on display before the launch. Previously the pre-flight area had been confined to a plain room with a short film was shown. Now it was a complex computer lined area populated with audio animatronics scientist.The busy team was headed by a sophisticated audio-animatronic character named Tom Morrow the director of Mission Control. Morrow describe the about to launch Lunar Transport Flight 92 and directed guests to look at wall monitors and catch humorous footage of a supposed UFO that turned out to be a clumsy incoming bird.As ambitious as the Flight To The Moon update was it still fell short of the bold concept illustration sketched out by artist Bill Boesch who had originally depicted the flight heading to Saturn and beyond.

From Disneyland 1967 Tomorrowland Info Packet


ALL NEW SPACE ADVENTURE:

Disneyland guests become "astronauts" when they step into the future for an exciting Flight to the Moon, a totally new space adventure presented in new Tomorrowland by McDonnell Douglas

DISNEYLAND SPACEPORT:

A Disneyland Spaceport, complete with a Mission Control center and Lunar Transports, has been created for Tomorrowland by WED.

Space travelers assemble for Space Flight 92 at the sweeping, curved entrance to the 25,300-square-foot, WED-designed pavilion

MISSION CONTROL:

A Tomorrowland hostess escorts guests to Mission Control, nerve-center of Disneyland's Spaceport. They move along railings at the front of terraced walkways until all are inside; from this point, they view the center's operations activities.

Mission Control is staffed by a director and eight-man crew, all realistic Audio-Animatronic figures. Low-level cross-talk among the center's controllers can be heard in the background as they go about their work.

Visitors to Mission Control watch space operations on one large viewing screen and 16 smaller ones located throughout the center and listen to a description of operations activities offered by the director.

EMERGENCY UFO!

Just when the audience is about to witness the launching of a space ship via closed-circuit television on the center's viewing screens, their attention is interrupted by the clanging of alarm bells and the wailing of sirens. A UFO has been sighted on radar.

Lights begin to flash — red, yellow, green — on the controls and panels around Mission Control. In a short time, the emergency is over and Mission Control returns to normal.

FLIGHT 92 READY FOR BOARDING:

The center's status board shows that the countdown for the audience's own flight has reached the final minutes and passengers are asked to follow the hostess to the boarding area. As passengers leave Mission Control, the director and his crew arc busy preparing to launch Flight 92.

As one audience departs Mission Control while hearing the final minutes of the countdown for their flight, the next audience arrives to take part in another pre-blast-off briefing.

INSIDE THE LUNAR PORT:

Passengers enter the cabin of their Lunar Transport and seat them-selves in terraced rows that encircle the compartment's interior.

During the flight, the ship's captain selects pictures from television cameras mounted outside the space craft and projects them on various screens in the compartment.

COUNTDOWN:

All passengers and the space ship's crew are prepared for blast-off. The countdown enters the final few seconds —"T minus five seconds — four — three — two — one — ignition!"

LIFT-OFF:

There is a thunderous roar and vibration as the engine's power increases. The space ship slowly lifts from the launch pad and passengers begin to feel the pull of gravity and literally sink into their foam-rubber-padded seats as the craft gains speed.

Passengers watch the earth fall away on a seven-foot-wide, floor-mounted viewing screen. Another screen of the same size, mounted on the ceiling of the cabin, permits passengers to see what lies ahead.

OUTER SPACE:

The Lunar Transport passes through a deep blue sky and fluffy white clouds, then leaves the earth's atmosphere. Passengers see the dark vastness of outer space with its countless millions of stars. A seemingly over-sized, yet unmistakenly familiar sight appears on the overhead screen: the brilliant, glowing surface of the moon, soon to be orbited by Disneyland space travelers.

WEIGHTLESSNESS:

Vibration and the whining crescendo of the engines rise to a cli-max. Suddenly, engines are stopped for a mid-course maneuver and passengers momentarily experience partial weightlessness. They feel the sensation of rising in their seats. Engine noise and vibrations begin once more as power is applied, and passengers sink back into their seats.

MOON EXPLORERS:

Screens open up on the walls of the compartment and passengers begin watching an especially arranged "live" telecast from the moon's surface of a lunar exploration party at work near their moon colony complex.

ORBITING THE MOON:

As the space craft continues its lunar orbit, the dark side of the moon comes into view on the lower screen. Flares are dropped from the space ship to light up the surface for easier viewing.

METEOR BOMBARDMENT:

On the wall screens, passengers next view sun spots and solar flares. Suddenly, all viewing screens light up with brilliant flashes. The space ship is passing through a meteor shower, and the crew at once is alerted to take all emergency precautions. Fortunately, no serious damage comes to the space ship and the return trip to earth proceeds safely.

RETURN TO EARTH:

The "normal" size moon is seen on the upper screen. and California's coastline appears on the lower one as the space craft begins to increase engine power for terminal deceleration and a soft land-ing. Gently, the huge ship sets down on a launch pad at the Disney-land Spaceport. Passengers are escorted from the space ship's compartment by the hostess.

CAPACITY:

As many as 1,620 passengers per hour can orbit the moon in twin Lunar Transports, each designed for identical journeys into space.

DURATION:

The Mission Control presentation runs 41/2 minutes and the space adventure unfolds in nine minutes.

From WED Disneyland Dictionary 1968
Is experienced by new Tomorrowland guests who first visit Mission Control's "Audio-Animatronics" crew in Disneyland's "Spaceport," then board a "Lunar Transport" for an all-new space adventure, next in realism only to an actual flight. They feel the "pull of gravity" at blast-off, experience the sensation of "weightlessness" in outer space and view a lunar colony's activity while orbiting the moon. Presented by McDonnell Douglas.