Epcot’s Spaceship Earth to be Transformed with a Time-Travel Story and a New Finale

We’ve been waiting for confirmation that the new Siemens sponsorship of Spaceship Earth would bring more than just a new exit exhibit. Today Disney made it official that we should expect big changes soon. Inside the Epcot icon a re-imagined Spaceship Earth presented by Siemens will combine the magic of the iconic attraction’s time-travel adventure into the past with a new finale which provides guests the opportunity to imagine their futures.

On a trip through time inside the Spaceship Earth attraction, guests discover how each generation of mankind has invented the future for the next generation, and how the spirit of innovation has moved people from the caves to the cosmos.

Enhancements to the time-travel attraction will encompass changes to each of the ride scenes. New show scenes will be added to the attraction’s story along with new lighting effects, costumes, set decoration, narration, and musical score. Walter Cronkite provided the original narration and Jeremy Irons does the current version.

This adventure through time leads ultimately to the very top of Spaceship Earth’s geodesic dome, where guests arrive at the present. The time travel adventure will be enhanced through new, interactive touch screens installed aboard each "time machine" that will enable guests to create their own visions of the future and see themselves in that future.

As guests disembark the time travel experience, they are invited to visit "Project Tomorrow: Inventing the World of Tomorrow," where interactive exhibits bring to life the ideas and technologies Siemens is developing to help make the world a better place for the future.

The space is filled with fun, interactive games and displays that showcase innovative technologies. Here guests step into the world of tomorrow and glimpse the future of medicine, transportation and responsible energy management across the globe.

As reported earlier students from Carnagie Melon University’s Entertainment Technology Center are getting the chance to design some of the games and exhibits for the "Project Tomorrow" space.

Opening to Epcot guests later this month, the first completed phases of Project Tomorrow will include:

• An illuminated globe measuring 20 feet in diameter that will offer an ever-changing collage of inspirational images that invite guests to imagine the wonders of tomorrow.
• Body Builder, a 3-D game that enables users to assemble a digital human body, simulating the Siemens technology developed to perform remote surgeries.
• Super Driver, a driving simulation video game that showcases motor vehicle accident and avoidance systems developed by Siemens.

With phased renovations occurring through the year, Spaceship Earth’s makeover is scheduled to be fully completed in early 2008.