Astro Orbiter, the spaceship ride is located in Tomorrowland in Magic Kingdom theme park. This rocket flight is only for those who have no motion sickness and any heart, neck and back problems.
It is even not for those who have fear of heights. It takes the riders whirling at 11 rotations per minute high up over the Magic Kingdom in Buck Rogers style rockets. It was commenced in 1974 by the name Star Jets.
Entrance to the rocket is at a height hence the guests need to use elevator to reach the entry deck. Loading area of Astro Orbiter is located near Tomorrowland Transit Authority attraction.
Astro orbiter soars high over Tomorrowland giving spectacular view of the Magic Kingdom canvas down below. The theme park looks out striking, packing up total beautiful in a single view.
Mind it, being rocket-like spaceship, the Orbiter can't have as much capacity as number of people wanting to fly. Patience is solicited from the guests. The Orbiter allows people of all ages to board.
Guests with young children may take the ride in turns for sharing experience of spins. There is a joystick for riders around to move the rocket to climb up or come down. The rocket orbits around a central structure encompassing imitated brightly colored planets.
The feeling is like getting thrown in a scientific fiction. Beside Astro Orbiter, certain rides in the same group, like CyberSpace Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters may cause health risks for some people. As such it is advised that guests must check the riding conditions for all of these before participation.
Rocket-spinner ride has a bit of history of remodeling attached to it. It was first opened in1956 in Disneyland by the name Astro Jets. This name had to be changed in 1964 since it was considered to be a free advertisement for coast-to coast passenger flight service, Astrojet of American Airlines.
The dispute lead it get renamed as Tomorrowland Jets. The ride got rechristened as Rocket Jets in August 1967 after it was suspended in September, 1966 for renovation. Under this renovation program the spaceship got locate on new platform called PeopleMover which was accessible from ground through elevator.
The version also replicated Satan V of NASA themed rocket. The ride underwent yet another remodeling sometime in 1997 as returned after a year named as Astro orbiter replicating Orbitron Machines Volanets at Disneyland, Paris. The latest restoration began in April, 2009 to come back in June, 2009 with blue, red, gold and silver color scheme. |
