Mission: SPACE is a centrifuge-based motion simulator ride found at Walt Disney World's EPCOT that opened in 2003. The ride centers around the possibility of space travel, and puts guests right in the center of a flight to Mars or an orbit around Earth. It replaced Horizons, which closed in 1999, and it marked the first time a Disney ride replacement meant demolishing the old building and constructing a new one in its place.
The year is 2036 and, in honor of the 75th anniversary of humans first entering space, the International Space Training Center (ISTC) is training new recruits to be astronauts for a manned mission to Mars. Though you don't know much, you gain plenty of knowledge from the Capsule Commander (Capcom for short, played by Gary Sinise) of your mission who explains how it will go. You and three others will man a spacecraft to Mars with assigned roles, those being Navigator, Pilot, Commander and Engineer. With these roles, you will blast off and, after three months of hypersleep, make it to Mars. However, asteroidean terrain impacts the trip, and this team now must face a life-or-death crisis and make a safe landing.
Following a series of complaints of the intensity of the ride experience, as well as two tragic deaths, a less intense version of the ride was offered as an alternative in 2006. Known as the "Green Mission", it removes the spinning functionality of the centrifuge and only does the tilts of the pod instead. The original spinning mission was rechristened as the "Orange Mission", with plenty of extra warnings placed beforehand. A refurbishment of the ride in 2017 not only gave updated graphics to the film, but it also changed the Green version of the ride to an entirely different experience. Titled "Earth Mission", with the original now called "Mars Mission", guests are now sent to do a simple orbit around Earth, though not without its own share of situations along the way. The updated ride also replaced Gary Sinise as the Capcom with Gina Torres.
The ride contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Space: In the 2017 version, the Green Team experience involves an Earth orbital flight. This would be fine, except for the fact that the spacecraft is travelling opposite of Earth's rotation. Anyone who has at least played Kerbal Space Program would know that this is a blatant violation of basic orbital mechanics.
- Award-Bait Song: Upon exiting the ride and walking the path to the post-show, the original song "Destiny" is played, which is clearly stylized to mimic the ballads this category of song resembled in the 90's. The song was removed for the 2017 version.
- Conveniently Close Planet: As it is a five minute simulator ride that takes you to Mars, it takes far shorter than any hypothetical space mission would take. However, the ride justifies this in-narrative by putting the guests into a pretend "hyper-sleep".
- Fake Interactivity: Though the ride does act like each of the crew members serves a purpose fulfilling your mission, every single function is manually overridden if the player waits long enough, meaning that the only sequence possible for rides to accomplish is the "good" one.
- Plot-Demanded Manual Mode: At the end of the Mars Mission, an autopilot failure means the riders need to use the joysticks to pilot their ship in. (As with the other controls, nothing happens if the riders fail to operate them properly.)
- Sleeper Starship: The riders spend most of the months-long trip to Mars in hypersleep.
- Spaceship Slingshot Stunt: The Mars Mission starts with a slingshot assist around the moon. Even then, it takes three months to get to Mars, which is passed over by putting the crew in hypersleep for most of that trip.