Spaceship Earth is Epcot’s park icon and a one-of-a-kind attraction at Walt Disney World resort. To celebrate this grand and miraculous icon, we’re sharing six facts about Spaceship Earth!

One Big Ball

Did you know Spaceship Earth is the largest free-standing sphere in the world?! At 180 feet tall, weighing almost 16 million pounds this attraction is truly a modern marvel. Although this sphere is so large, it still isn’t the largest thing in Epcot! In fact, the tank inside of The Seas Pavilion is so enormous that Spaceship Earth could be completely submerged in it.

Familiar Faces

Spaceship Earth is full of audio animatronics who help to tell the tale of the evolution of communication! With so many audio animatronics to create, Disney Imagineers reused some existing face molds from other attractions. For example, the Egyptian Priest shares a face with President William Taft from the Hall of Presidents! This isn’t the only past U.S. president you will find within the ride, so keep your eyes peeled the next time you ride.

Drainage Design

Although Spaceship Earth is located in the Sunshine State, Florida has its fair share of rain showers! This fact was taken into consideration when constructing this park icon. Hidden behind the many triangles that make up Spaceship Earth are gutters that help to collect the rainwater, eventually draining the water from the six legs of the sphere into the World Showcase Lagoon! This drainage system helps to keep the water from dripping off of Spaceship Earth onto its many guests. How cool is that?

Interactive Ending

As you make your descent back to earth, you’ll get to plan your “future” by answer a series of questions! At the beginning of the attraction you’ll pose for a picture, and once you’ve answered all the question and your future is created, you’ll get to see yourself in action. Based on where you say you want to live, where you like to travel, and other similar questions, the computer is able to put together a fun video for you. Once you exit the attraction, you can email it to yourself using kiosks in the exit area for a fun memory!

Four Narrators

During this attraction’s almost four decades it has undergone quite a few changes. One of the main changes was through its various narrators over the years. The first narrator was Lawrence Dobkin from 1982 until 1986. Next was Walter Cronkite from 1986 until 1994. Then Jeremy Irons (the voice of Scar from The Lion King) served as narrator from 1994-2007. Today Dame Judi Dench narrates the current version and has held this spot since February of 2008!

Over Two Years To Build

This grand and miraculous spaceship was not a quick build! In fact, it took 26 months to construct this modern marvel. This structure is made of 11,324 triangular facets and is 150,000 square feet all around. Since Spaceship Earth is the very first thing that Epcot’s guests see, the finished product was worth the wait!

As you can see, this attraction has quite a bit of history! So next time you embark on your journey into Spaceship Earth, keep this grand and miraculous facts in mind.