Space Mountain history at Disneyland Paris: three tales, one dome

Space Mountain is the ride that sent Disneyland Paris into orbit in 1995, and it probably carries more history than any other attraction in the park.

Over thirty years, the same dome has told three different stories. First came De la Terre à la Lune (1995-2005), based on Jules Verne’s novel and its giant cannon. Then Mission 2 (2005-2017) took riders on a trip beyond the galaxy. Today it’s Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain (since 2017), which drops you into the Battle of Jakku.

This coaster launched into the dark has roots going back to 1959 and to Walt Disney’s own dream of space. In this article, I walk you through how it all started, what happened behind the scenes of each version, the full backstory of the Baltimore Gun Club, and plenty of fun facts for fans. If you’re after practical info instead (wait times, height requirement, thrill level), you’ll find everything on my Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain page.

To understand Space Mountain, you have to go back to 1959. On June 14 of that year, Disneyland in California opened Matterhorn Bobsleds, a 1:100 scale copy of the Swiss peak (the Matterhorn, or Cervin in French).

The idea came about in 1958, while the movie Third Man on the Mountain was being filmed in Zermatt. Walt Disney mailed a postcard of the summit to his Imagineers (Disney’s creative engineers, a blend of "imagination" and "engineer") with an instruction of just two words: "Build it!"

That ride laid the technical groundwork that would make Space Mountain possible. It was the first roller coaster built on a tubular steel structure, more flexible and safer, able to send several cars out at once on two intertwined tracks and, above all, to run part of the ride indoors. The track system came from Arrow Development, the company Disney would call on again years later to design the rails of Space Mountain. A Yeti and icy scenery were added in 1978.

Walt Disney was fascinated by space exploration long before the first crewed flights. Between 1955 and 1957, his Disneyland TV series aired three episodes on the topic: Man in Space, Man and the Moon, and Mars and Beyond.

It was against that backdrop, at the end of 1964, that Walt came up with a fresh idea together with designer John Hench, with advice from science fiction writer Ray Bradbury: the first roller coaster launched in total darkness, meant to be the centerpiece of a "Space Port" in Tomorrowland.

The first plans called for four tracks, partly outdoors. The technology wasn’t ready yet, and computers would be needed to work out such a complex layout and to dispatch the rockets safely.

The project then sat on the shelf for more than ten years. Walt Disney’s death in 1966, followed by the focus on building Disney World in Florida, pushed it back. It only came back to life after Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, when the park’s surprising popularity with teens and young adults finally convinced Disney to build this space coaster.

On January 15, 1975, Space Mountain finally opened at Magic Kingdom in Florida. Edna Disney, Walt’s sister-in-law and Roy O. Disney’s widow, dedicated it at age 84. Its cone shape, designed by John Hench, is often likened to Mount Fuji.

A smaller single-track version then opened in California on May 27, 1977, dedicated by six of the seven original Mercury astronauts. That version was later copied at Tokyo Disneyland (1983) and in Hong Kong (2005). For the 50th anniversary of Disneyland Resort, it reopened with Neil Armstrong on hand, along with a plaque bearing a line Walt was fond of.

At Disneyland Paris, Space Mountain doesn’t sit in a future-facing "Tomorrowland" like in the other parks. It’s in Discoveryland, which opened with the park in 1992. This land (one of the park’s themed areas) pays tribute to great visionaries, especially Jules Verne and his publisher Hetzel, who printed his Voyages extraordinaires.

You’ll spot these nods all over: Le Visionarium (now Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast), Orbitron, Café Hetzel, and even a mural of the author at the Annual Pass office.

Walt and Verne shared the same profile, two visionaries who taught themselves. One line often attributed to the French author, and one Walt was fond of quoting, captures that mindset well.

The Paris version of Space Mountain takes its cue straight from Jules Verne’s novel De la Terre à la Lune (1865). In the book, the Baltimore Gun Club, a society of artillery buffs, builds a giant cannon called the Columbiad to fire a crewed projectile at the Moon. A scale model of that cannon stands proudly in front of the ride’s entrance and kicks off the whole story.

In the lagoon in front of the dome, you’ll also see the Nautilus submarine from the Les Mystères du Nautilus attraction, another tribute to Verne.

Before it became Space Mountain, the project went by another name: Discovery Mountain. The plan was far bigger than a single ride. The Imagineers pictured a whole complex with several attractions and a restaurant under one roof, built around a "Fire and Water" theme. And the main feature wasn’t a rocket at all but the Nautilus, from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

There was even a variant with a pair of coasters next to each other, a gentler "junior coaster" for families and a "senior coaster" more like the Space Mountain rides in the US, with a section of track running outside. In the end, the plan was shelved: too complicated, and it needed too much space.

Construction began in 1993, with opening day two years later. Dedicated on May 31, 1995 (and opened to the public the next day, June 1), this first version picked up right where Verne’s novel left off. After their trip to the Moon, the Gun Club members, president Impey Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, and the Frenchman Michel Ardan, had set up the "Blue Moon Mining Company." The club now invited anyone to take the same lunar voyage.

You reached it either by a bridge running along Discovery Lagoon, near the cannon, or by "La Voie Stellaire," a walkway facing the Videopolis Theater that would later become the FastPass entrance.

The industrial-style loading area was decked out with French flags in honor of Michel Ardan, the novel’s French hero. After the boarding call, the rocket train was shot through the cannon with a bang and a puff of smoke, a wink at the "400,000 pounds of guncotton" Verne writes about. The motto of the trip: "Ad Luna in flamma gloria!"

Along the way, a "wandering body" (an asteroid) knocked the ship off course, just as in the novel, with a tribute to Georges Méliès’s man in the Moon (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). The final braking came from the "Electro-De-Velocitor," an electric device that recalled the Nautilus, before a triumphant return to a burst of fanfare.

One of the big choices for this version was an onboard soundtrack synced to the ride, written by composer Steve Bramson. His credits included the series Tiny Toon Adventures and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, where he worked alongside James Horner.

His grand theme draws on two influences named in the book: Claude Debussy, for its impressionistic, mysterious side, and Gustav Holst, whose suite The Planets gives it a sweeping scale. The score was prepared in a studio in California, fine-tuned during two trips to Paris, then recorded in Los Angeles with some sixty musicians.

On opening day, the ride laid claim to several world firsts. No dark coaster before it had paired a catapult start with inversions and music playing in sync inside the train. In 1996, it won the award for best attraction from the TEA (Themed Entertainment Association), a benchmark in the theme park industry.

Michael Eisner, Disney’s CEO at the time, even credited the ride (and its designer, Imagineer Tim Delaney) with helping save Disneyland Paris: its success supported the financial turnaround of the resort, which was in deep trouble back then.

The 1995 opening night brought together an unlikely lineup: an actor playing Jules Verne, perched in his barrel on top of the cannon, plus Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Elton John, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

On October 7, 1995, 500 young Europeans gathered at Videopolis even talked live with the Russian space station MIR. Collectors, meanwhile, held on to the pins, the 20th anniversary medal, and the certificate handed to kids too short to ride.

For the ride’s 10th anniversary, Space Mountain switched stories on April 9, 2005, and became Space Mountain: Mission 2. Planning had started as early as the beginning of December 2003. This time the trip no longer stopped at the Moon: the "explornauts" headed past the galaxy to discover the wonders of the universe. The ride and its scenery were reworked, and a new "Supernova" logo came with the change.

The electro-themed opening night was hosted by DJ Tiësto, with actor Vin Diesel in attendance.

In 2015, Disneyland Paris kicked off a plan to refurbish ten iconic attractions ahead of its 25th anniversary. Space Mountain was on the list: the dome got a fresh coat of paint, the roof, cornice, and Columbiad sign were restored, the star and supernova projections switched over to LED entirely, and the train control system (the "ride control") was upgraded.

That’s also when the Single Rider line showed up, for guests riding on their own.

The ride reopened, still as Mission 2, on July 27, 2015, twenty years after its original opening.

The ride you know today arrived on May 7, 2017, during the Season of the Force event: Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain. From then on, the story played out in a galaxy far, far away.

You’re thrown into the Battle of Jakku, where the New Republic takes on the last holdouts of the Empire, one year after the Battle of Endor. Running the show: Admiral Ackbar, a Star Destroyer, TIE fighters going up against Blue Squadron, and of course a jump to hyperspace.

This version grew naturally out of Mission 2 after the 2015 refurbishment. It took twelve months of design work and four months of installation.

The switch to Hyperspace Mountain went beyond a new paint job. New effects were added: lasers and projections on nine screens placed along the track. The rocket trains were replaced with models that have a lower center of gravity and new harnesses for better stability, and the minimum height came down to 1.20 m.

The soundtrack was redone too, built from pieces of the Star Wars movie scores.

As for the look, the original copper tones gave way to a sky blue, with "cannon" details (gears, suns, stars) and the goddess Diana pictured on the harnesses. Before each opening, the ride is tested with weighted cars.

At D23 2026, Disney announced that Space Mountain will get its original theme back, De la Terre à la Lune. Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain is set to close at the end of 2027, and after a stretch of construction the ride will return to Jules Verne’s world. It’s a return to its roots, more than thirty years after its 1995 debut. I covered all the announcements in my D23 2026 recap.

Space Mountain is just one chapter in the park’s bigger story. If you’re hooked, keep going with how Disneyland Paris was created in 1992 and dig into the full history of Disneyland Paris. For more attraction backstories, I recommend the Thunder Mesa saga, the story world behind Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor.

And to plan your own trip under the blue dome, all the practical info (wait times, height requirement, thrill level, Single Rider) is on my Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain page.