Three Things You Probably Didn't Know About Space Mountain

Disney World’s Space Mountain is a hotspot for family fun as well as a hotspot for shrouded mystery.

1.) Space Mountain is the world’s second largest Rube Goldberg machine. The largest, much to many people’s surprise, is the Washington Monument.

Did you know... the Washington Monument extends several miles underground and the subterranean caverns located underneath the monument were the inspiration for the computer game The Incredible Machine?

2.) Every star in Space Mountain represents someone who has died of AIDs. Tourists and HIV enthusiasts alike can buy their AIDs stars at any Disney store location.

3.) During the great space race, Walt Disney demanded that the Disney Corporation beat both the US and the Soviets into space. The construction crew put to the task of building the rocket felt overwhelmed as to how they were expected to launch anything into space using only roller coaster tracks. In a desperate effort to keep their jobs and save themselves from a tyrannical scolding at the hands of Disney, they constructed Space Mountain in a way that would make Walt Disney believe he actually went into space. The ruse worked, and Walt died under the impression that he spent a brief part of his life orbiting the earth.

Walt Disney died a cartoonist, an entrepreneur, a demolitions expert, part-time samurai, and a professor in linguistics. He did not, however, die an astronaut.