Astro Orbiter
| Astro Orbiter | |
|---|---|
| Park | Magic Kingdom |
| Land / area | Tomorrowland |
| Type | Rocket-spinner |
| Opened | April 30, 1994 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | None |
| Status | Operating |
Astro Orbiter is a rocket-spinner attraction in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Florida. Riders sit in two-passenger rocket vehicles that circle a central tower decorated with planets, rising and falling under the rider's control. Unusually for this type of ride, the loading platform is elevated: the Astro Orbiter sits on top of Rockettower Plaza, above the station of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, so the rockets fly high above the land. It opened under its present name on April 30, 1994, replacing the Star Jets, which had occupied the same platform since November 28, 1974.
History
Spinner rides with rocket vehicles dated to Disneyland's early years: the Astro Jets opened there in 1956, circling above Tomorrowland at ground level. The Magic Kingdom opened in 1971 without an equivalent, because its original Tomorrowland was built in a first, comparatively sparse phase.
The ride arrived with the Tomorrowland expansion of 1974–1975, which also added Space Mountain, the WEDWay PeopleMover and a new home for the Carousel of Progress. As the Star Jets, the attraction opened on November 28, 1974. Its vehicles were styled after contemporary spacecraft rather than rockets, circling a large Saturn V-style central rocket, and at full height they flew about 60 feet (18 metres) above the ground. Perched at the centre of the land, the spinning jets became a visual focal point of Tomorrowland and its kinetic landmark.
Star Jets closed on January 10, 1994, as part of the New Tomorrowland project, which recast the land in a retro-futuristic style drawn from early science fiction. The platform, mechanism and elevated position were retained, but the central rocket was replaced by a tower of orbs and planets, the vehicles were restyled as colourful rockets, and capacity was increased. The attraction reopened as the Astro Orbiter on April 30, 1994.
Experience
The queue begins at ground level in Rockettower Plaza, near The Lunching Pad. Because the ride platform is on the roof, riders travel up in a small elevator — one of the few Disney attractions where an elevator forms part of the normal route to boarding — and step into rockets arranged around the central tower.
Each rocket holds two passengers in tandem, secured by a seat belt, and carries a control lever. Once the ride begins, at about eleven rotations per minute, pushing or pulling the lever raises or lowers the rocket on its roughly 20-foot (6-metre) support arm, within a range of about 10 to 15 feet. Even at its lowest setting a rocket is well above Tomorrowland, and at full height riders look out over much of the Magic Kingdom, including Cinderella Castle and Space Mountain.
A circuit lasts about ninety seconds. The combination of height, speed of rotation and the outward tilt of the vehicles makes the Astro Orbiter noticeably more intense than ground-level spinners such as Dumbo the Flying Elephant, despite having no height restriction and no drops or inversions. Its low hourly capacity and the elevator bottleneck also tend to produce longer waits than its short ride time might suggest.
Equivalent rocket-spinners operate at the other castle parks, including Disneyland, where the Astro Orbitor occupies a ground-level position at the entrance to Tomorrowland, and Hong Kong Disneyland, where the version uses flying saucers as Orbitron.