For their first every joint production, IMAX and The Walt Disney Studios have announced an agreement to produce and distribute the latest IMAX 3D cinematic space spectacle from acclaimed filmmaker Toni Myers, who has been crafting mind-blowing movie experiences for IMAX audiences for more than… Read More »Disney joins IMAX to produce 3D Space Film
Earlier today NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour completed the last leg of its cross-nation tour with a low altitude flight over a few Southern California landmarks, including the world famous Disneyland Resort. Mounted atop a specially designed NASA Boeing 747 plane for its “Ferry Flight” the… Read More »Endeavour Space Shuttle Takes Final Flight over Disneyland
For the first time in over 30 years, NASA is permitting Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex guests to tour the Launch Control Center – where NASA directors and engineers supervised all of the 152 launches for the space shuttle and Apollo programs. Anyone who has ever dreamed of being an astronaut or felt hope upon seeing a rocket launch should add this unique opportunity to their schedule when visiting Central Florida.
The KSC Up-Close: Launch Control Center (LCC) Tour, the second in Kennedy Space Center’s special 50th anniversary series of rare-access tours, takes visitors inside Firing Room 4, one of the LCC’s four firing rooms and the one from which all 21 space shuttle launches since 2006 were controlled.
Giant Mural inside LCC Lobby
Inside Firing Room 4, visitors pass by the computer consoles at which engineers monitored the computerized launch control system’s thousands of system checks every minute leading up to launch. They’ll see the main launch countdown clock and many large video monitors on the walls, and enter the “bubble room,” with its wall of interior windows through which the Kennedy Space Center management team viewed all of the proceedings below.
Walt Disney’s fascination with outer space has been evident since the 1955 Disneyland episode “Man In Space” and the X1 attraction at Disneyland. So it’s nice to see Disney keep up the tradition with a special space themed Mickey Mouse Clubhouse special.
Yesterday, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse welcomed NASA astronauts Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim to The Disney Studios in Burbank, CA where they greeted kids from the East Los Angeles Boys & Girls Club and gave a special presentation on their final space shuttle mission before the kids enjoyed a preview screening of Disney Junior’s new “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Space Adventure” special premiering on Disney Channel Monday, September 12.
The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood is the pinnacle of the Disney movie watching experience. It is old Hollywood meets new, with restorations to both the exterior and interior, and equipped with Dolby SR-D digital sound, film and digital projectors, and 3-D capability. It is… Read More »Disney’s El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood
Buzz Lightyear’s dream of going “to infinity and beyond” will finally come true this weekend when Disney Parks and NASA send the 12-inch-tall action figure to space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-124 launching from Kennedy Space Center on May 31 at 5:02 p.m. ET (subject to schedule changes).
The launch coincides with the opening of Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s new “edu-tainment” program the “Space Ranger Education Series”. Disney, Pixar and NASA have teamed up to get school children excited about the sciences. The series, hosted at www.nasa.gov, will be available throughout 2008.
The folks at Disney are deservedly proud of this achievement. I’ve received this story from four separate sources at the Mouse House. It’s a pretty great program and hopefully will inspire many of today’s students to become tomorrow’s scientists.
A short video schools can use to highlight the program and the full press release is below the cut: