Space Mountain is known for hurtling guests through the dark, like rockets shooting through space. It was the first coaster experience to be fully enclosed and in the dark, according to Vagnini.

The ride today bears little resemblance to actual spaceflight. But in the 50 years Space Mountain has been running, there have been and still are several nods to NASA.

The Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain ride ended up with two tracks instead of four, both of them indoors. The Florida version of the ride was essentially Disneyland’s Matterhorn track layout ...

Yep, I got kicked off Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris. Not for bad behaviour—just a classic ‘restraint won’t close’ moment ...

When the ride opened on Jan. 15, 1975, an Apollo moonwalker was its first passenger, NASA's insignia was on display and Space Mountain was dedicated to opening the new frontier.

Initial plans for Space Mountain by Walt Disney and his Imagineers in the early 1960s conceived of a spaceport in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland with four separate roller coaster tracks weaving ...