CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The Walt Disney World Resort officially dedicated its newest attraction Thursday and announced a new 10-year strategic partnership with HP, the computer company that helped make the high-tech Mission: SPACE ride possible.
Located within Epcot's Future World, Mission: SPACE teases visitors with a sense of what flying in space is like by giving guests a brief spin on a centrifuge.
Riding inside a fictional spaceship of the near future, visitors are introduced to a world invented by Disney Imagineers but is based on fact, much of it provided by current NASA scientists and former astronauts.
More than a dozen spaceflight veterans representing every NASA program from Mercury to Apollo to the space shuttle were on hand for the opening ceremony, including Robert Crippen, a four-time shuttle astronaut who piloted the first flight of Columbia in 1981.
After riding Mission: SPACE with three Central Florida area students, Crippen praised the attraction and said it was very much "like the real thing."
"I think there still is enthusiasm for space in the United States," Crippen said in response to a question about how the public perceives the space program following the Columbia tragedy. "A ride like this helps young people by strengthening their interest in math and the sciences. It will help light the fires."
The brains behind the $100 million-plus attraction are computers provided by HP, and company officials say that partnership should work well for the next decade.
"HP is proud to be the technology provider supporting much of what makes the Disney experience magical," said Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief executive officer. "We are honored to be part of Disney's past and its present - and we're even more committed to working with Disney to build the future."
While the formal Disney/HP partnership is relatively new, the founders of the two companies once worked together in 1940 when Walt Disney was preparing to release the animated feature Fantasia.
Essentially a collection of music videos using classical pieces, Fantasia was well ahead of its time. Walt Disney, wanting to continually push the frontier of movie making, insisted the feature only be shown in theatres capable of reproducing sound to his standards.
To help Disney fine tune the acoustics in movie houses, Bill Hewlett modified his first invention, an oscillator, to make sound measurements. It wasn't until 1998 that the two firms worked together again, officials said.
Disney "knew that when technology is applied to imagination, everything is possible," Fiorina said.
"As a technology company, HP is the perfect partner to present this attraction, and Epcot is the perfect setting, continuing the park's dedication to the explorer in all of us," said Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World Resort.
In addition to providing the Walt Disney Company with standard personal computers, web servers, related software and 13,000 laser printers at Walt Disney World in Florida alone, HP is also working with the entertainment giant to apply new technology to the theme parks.
A good example is the recent introduction of "Ears to the World," which is a wireless headset that can be worn by guests who don't speak English. A synchronized translation is heard as the person moves through the attraction. Five languages are available at more than 25 of Disney's most popular venues.
SPACE.com Managing Editor Anthony Duignan-Cabrera contributed to this story from Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
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