Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain
| Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disneyland Park (Paris) |
| Land / area | Discoveryland |
| Type | Steel launched enclosed roller coaster |
| Opened | June 1, 1995 (as Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune) |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | 1.20 m (47 in) |
| Status | Operating |
Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain is an enclosed launched steel roller coaster in Discoveryland at Disneyland Park (Paris) at Disneyland Paris. It is the Paris version of Space Mountain, but unlike any other version it was built around Jules Verne, launched from a giant cannon, and given inversions and synchronised on-board music. It first opened on June 1, 1995, as Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune, three years after the park itself, became Space Mountain: Mission 2 in 2005, and took its current Star Wars theme on May 7, 2017, for the resort's 25th anniversary.[1]
History
Discoveryland was conceived as a tribute to European visionaries rather than a copy of Tomorrowland, and a large Verne-inspired complex called Discovery Mountain was planned around a much bigger version of this ride, with the Nautilus, restaurants and other experiences inside a single mountain. Budget pressure and the young resort's financial difficulties cut that scheme back sharply. What survived was the mountain itself, its Columbiad cannon and a separate Nautilus walk-through in the lagoon beside it — and the finished coaster is still credited with helping revive interest in the struggling resort.
The 1995 original took its story from Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon. Guests visited the Baltimore Gun Club, boarded copper-and-bronze trains and were fired toward a smiling Moon, with a score by Steven Bramson played through the first synchronised on-board audio system on a roller coaster. It was, at opening, the only Space Mountain with a launch or inversions, and a section of track outside the mountain. The ride closed on January 15, 2005, and reopened on April 9, 2005, as Mission 2, keeping the same track but sending guests beyond the Moon to a supernova, with new effects and a new score by Michael Giacchino. A refurbishment in 2015 improved the effects and added a single-rider queue.
Mission 2 closed on January 8, 2017. The Star Wars version that followed kept the Verne mountain and cannon outside, but replaced the story inside with a Rebel reconnaissance mission, new projections, new trains and John Williams music recorded for the attraction. Disney has since announced that this version will close at the end of 2027 so the ride can return to its original De la Terre à la Lune theme.[2]
Experience
The mountain dominates Discoveryland: a riveted, steampunk cone with the 22-metre Columbiad cannon angled out of its side. Inside, guests pass pictures of X-wings and TIE fighters, a safety briefing and the Baltimore Gun Club hall, where blueprints still present the cannon as the means of launching spacecraft into hyperspace. They board blue Victorian-styled trains in the station and roll into the cannon to a briefing from Admiral Ackbar.
The launch is the ride's signature. The train is catapulted up the side of the mountain — in figures published for the attraction, from 0 to 71 km/h (44 mph) in 1.8 seconds — before dropping back inside for a fast run in near-darkness. The 1,000-metre layout includes three inversions, identified in the original version as a sidewinder, a corkscrew and a cutback, and reaches about 32 metres high. In the current version the darkness is broken by Star Wars projections: TIE fighters, Star Destroyers and a jump to hyperspace around Jakku, all timed to the on-board Williams score. The minimum height is 1.20 metres.[3]
See also
- Disneyland Park (Paris)
- Disneyland Paris
- Les Mystères du Nautilus
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue