Out of this World (Poster)

When Walt saw how popular the Matterhorn Bobsleds were in Disneyland, he realized maybe thrill rides had a place in his park after all. He soon thought up the idea of a space-themed roller coaster, and in 1964, he approached Imagineer John Hench with the concept. It would be the focal point of a renovated Tomorrowland–a dark roller coaster called “Space Port”. Technological limitations of the time and the distraction of creating Walt Disney World, along with, of course, the loss of Walt in 1966, led to the Space Port project’s being set aside in the late 60s–but like they say, no good idea ever goes away at Disney. With the success of Magic Kingdom when it opened in the early 1970s, and especially its surprising popularity with young people, the company began planning for the park’s first thrill ride. Duplicating Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds wasn’t feasible in the available space, so they instead revisited an old idea, the Space Port, at that point already being referred to by a ne