Part III: Construction
In January 1993, construction began on this major new E-Ticket attraction, and with it, hopes for a new era at Disneyland Paris. About 20 months later, in September 1994, construction was completed, but the attraction didn’t open until May 1995.
An important part of the new attraction was to be the music. Composer Steve Bramson was chosen for the job. Inspired by the music of John Williams and the movie 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea, he wrote the entire Space Mountain soundtrack, which includes not only the music in the ride, but also that in the queue.
The first music is very calm, describing space from its discovery to its admiration, and was written for the atmosphere in the queue. The second music, on the other hand, is the opposite of the first, to describe the very eventful journey of the guests. The music is divided into 4 sections: the departure, the passage through a meteorite field, the encounter with the moon and the return to Earth! In an interview, Steve Bramson said that he hated the roller coaster, but had to ride several times to adapt and perfect the music to the tracks and the story!
One idea that remained from the original concept was having various attractions. Although they weren’t rides, two walk-through attractions were built at the same time. The first was “The Mysteries of the Nautilus,” where you walk through Captain Nemo’s submarine and meet the Kraken. This one still exists in the park today!
Then there was the second attraction, “The Stellar Way.” This was an observation walkway that led through the interior of Space Mountain, at ground level. This offering gave the not-so-brave a view of the amazing space and the coming ride vehicles. Unfortunately, it was closed and the walkway was used as the Fast Pass queue, when this was introduced at the resort.
By the end of construction, the brand new ride was to be called Discovery Mountain, not Space Mountain. This change was made so late in the development that when the ride opened, all handrails and the entire queue were labeled “DM” instead of “SM”.
The Main Street News 
2 thoughts on “The History of Paris’ Space Mountain: De la Terre a la Lune”