The Astro Orbiter is a "rocket-spinner",
aerial carousel
Red Baron is an amusement ride that is primarily intended for small children.
It's a common kiddie ride at many amusement parks, carnivals, and fairs. The rider can move the gondola up and down manually. Many ride manufacturers make this type of ...
-type attraction featured at five
Disneyland-style parks and Walt Disney Resorts around the world, except for
Tokyo Disneyland). Although each ride may have a slightly different name, all share the same experience of vehicles traveling through space, spinning around a central monument. In most forms of the ride, the use of a joystick (or steering wheel, buttons, etc.) enables guests to adjust the height of their individual cars at will, usually within a range of no more than 10-15 feet. When the ride cycle comes to its completion, any ascended vehicles are automatically lowered for passenger exit and re-boarding. Over the years, with each new iteration of the ride debuting, new designs, thematic schemes, and locations have been implemented to fit with the changing themes of several
Tomorrowlands.
History
Disneyland
In 1956, the first rocket-spinner attraction opened at Disneyland and was known as the Astro Jets. The attraction was made by Klaus Company Bavaria and similar to several versions found in traveling carnivals. The "jets" made a 50-foot circle around a large red-checkered rocket and guests were able climb upwards of 36 feet in their ride vehicles from the ground level they were boarded at. The attraction stood between the
Submarine Voyage
The Submarine Voyage was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The attraction features vehicles designed to resemble submarines. It first opened on June 14, 1959, as one of the first rides to require an E ticket. It was part of a ma ...
and Rocket to the Moon.
The name Astro Jets was changed in 1964 when
United Airlines, as a new park sponsor (sponsoring "
The Enchanted Tiki Room
Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room is an attraction located in Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort and in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and previously in Tokyo Disneyland at Tokyo Disney Resort. First opened on June 23, 1963 at the Disneyl ...
"), contended the name was free advertising for
American Airlines' coast-to-coast
Astrojet service. After this dispute, the name was changed to Tomorrowland Jets. The name lasted until September 1966, when the attraction was closed to make room for the new renovated Tomorrowland.
The attraction returned in August 1967 as the
Rocket Jets. This version was located on top of the new
PeopleMover platform, and was accessible from ground level via an elevator. The focal point of this version was its replica
Saturn V/
NASA-themed rocket in the center. This version remained open until 1997, when it closed for renovations with the rest of Tomorrowland. The new form of the attraction opened one year later as Astro Orbitor at Disneyland. The new version is a replica of the ''Orbitron, Machines Volantes'' at
Disneyland Paris.
The Astro Orbitor at Disneyland was planned to be placed where the Rocket Jets were, but weighed too much for the current building. Instead, it was relocated to the entrance of Tomorrowland, and placed on ground level, thus making the ride the new focal point as guests step from the main plaza of Disneyland into Tomorrowland. One concept drawing had guests boarding the attraction underground and others had the center of the attraction featuring a water moat (similar to the "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" attraction in Fantasyland). Neither ideas were ever carried out.
The mechanism for Rocket Jets on top of the PeopleMover was re-used as a kinetic satellite-themed sculpture known as the Observatron, built from the same skeletal structure. The Observatron was originally planned to come to life every fifteen minutes and appear to summon signs from the skies, while a selected soundtrack (such as selected music pieces from
Space Mountain and Le Visionarium at Disneyland Paris) would play over Tomorrowland. However, the mechanism has been prone to failure and occasionally will be inactive for periods of months or only play sporadically on certain days. It is unknown if the Observatron still functions.
In April 2009, the Astro Orbitor at Disneyland closed for refurbishment and was stripped down to its skeletal structure. It reopened in June 2009 with a silver, blue, red, and gold trim color scheme.
Magic Kingdom
No form of the attraction existed in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World until 1974, three years after the park's opening, when Tomorrowland underwent a massive expansion including the creation of
Space Mountain, a new location for the Disneyland-attraction,
Carousel of Progress, and the
WEDWay PeopleMover
The PeopleMover is an urban mass transit PeopleMover system attraction in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Designed as an urban mass-transit system of t ...
. The Star Jets were considered the focal point of Tomorrowland due to its soaring, spinning rockets and central location.
This version of the attraction was based on the Disneyland version, in both location (on top of the PeopleMover platform) and in style (both feature a large Saturn V rocket as the centerpiece). However the attraction vehicles were different from any other previous form as they were much larger and featured a flatter back-end and larger tail fins. While Disneyland's
Rocket Jets resembled actual rockets, the
Magic Kingdom's Star Jets appeared more like space shuttles. Each of the 12 open-air vehicles was attached to the central axis by a 20-foot arm. The vehicles held up to two passengers who circled round and round, 60 feet above the ground, while controlling their ascent and descent with a metal control stick. On January 10, 1994, the original Star Jets closed in order to undergo a complete makeover as part of the New Tomorrowland.
The attraction was re-designed and re-opened on April 30, 1994, as the Astro Orbiter, part of the complete renovation of the park's Tomorrowland section. The attraction featured a highly stylized iron-work tower in lieu of the center rocket along with various planets on the outside of the attraction as to appear as if the rockets were weaving between the planets. The ride at the Magic Kingdom does 11 rotations per minute and averages 1.2 million miles a year.
[
]
In the 1994-2009 narration for the
Tomorrowland Transit Authority, the ride was referenced as the "League of Planets Astro Orbiter."
Tokyo Disneyland
The version prepared for
Tokyo Disneyland debuted with the park in April 1983, sharing its name ("Star Jets") and design with the first Magic Kingdom version. Even though the park does not have a PeopleMover attraction, designers nonetheless placed their attraction atop an elevated platform similar to that at Florida's Magic Kingdom. This attraction closed on October 10, 2017.
Disneyland Park (Paris)
The opening of ''
Euro Disneyland'' in April 1992 marked a significant change in the design of Tomorrowland. Known as Discoveryland, the land took on a retro-science-fiction style inspired by some of Europe's greatest writers, such as
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
and
H. G. Wells. As such, Orbitron's central axis resembles a bronze 19th century rotating planetarium instead of a rocket. This design was exported to the Disneyland Resort in California when Tomorrowland was renovated in 1998. This was also the first version of the attraction to be installed at ground level instead of atop an elevated platform.
Hong Kong Disneyland
Like the other international Disneyland parks,
Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland () (local nickname ''HKDL''; also known as HK Disneyland) is a theme park located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and it is owned and managed by Hong Ko ...
opened in September 2005 with its own version, known as the Orbitron, a modified version of the Parisian one. In order to improve the attraction's capacity, the rockets became "flying saucers" and were made large enough to accommodate an average of four riders per saucer, in two rows of two riders.
Shanghai Disneyland
It is known as Jet Packs at
Shanghai Disneyland. It opened on the same day as Shanghai Disneyland opened, June 16, 2016.
See also
*
Incidents at Disney parks
*
List of Disneyland attractions
*
Magic Kingdom attraction and entertainment history
*
Tokyo Disneyland attraction and entertainment history
References
External links
Disneyland - Astro OrbitorMagic Kingdom - Astro OrbiterDisneyland Park (Paris) - OrbitronHong Kong Disneyland - OrbitronShanghai Disneyland - Jet Packs
{{Shanghai Disneyland Park
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions
Space in amusement parks
Tomorrowland
Amusement rides introduced in 1974
Amusement rides introduced in 1983
Amusement rides introduced in 1992
Amusement rides introduced in 1998
Amusement rides introduced in 2005
Amusement rides introduced in 2016
Amusement rides that closed in 2017
Disneyland
Magic Kingdom
Disneyland Park (Paris)
Hong Kong Disneyland
Shanghai Disneyland