- “Ad Luna in Flamma Gloria”
- ―Space Mountain credo
Discovery Landing Station better known as Space Mountain or Le Mont de l'Espace in French is the setting for Space Mountain in Disneyland Paris. It is the first Space Mountain to exist chronologically within the Space Mountain mythos. Discovery Landing is also the icon for Discoveryland.
History[]
Background[]
Discovery Landing is a structure located in, "Discoveryland" in Paris, France. Discoveryland was a futurist settlement created at some point around the Victorian era and which was active around the turn-of-the-century. Discovery Landing in-particular was created as a steampunk space-station on Earth which was built adjacent to a lagoon containing the salvaged Nautilus submarine.
Discovery Landing was created by the Baltimore Gun Club, a firearm engineering organization from Baltimore, Maryland in the United States of America. The gun club had originally developed the concept for Space Mountain following the American Civil War as a means of shooting bullet-like vehicles into orbit. This project was overseen by the club's president, Colonel Impey Barbicane. The Columbiad Cannon was ultimately constructed in Discoveryland in France
Discovery Landing would be equipped with a massive Columbiad Cannon to fire specialized bullet-like rockets into orbit. Space Mountain was also equipped with an Electro-de-Velocitor to bring the rockets back to Earth. Club-president Barbicane also used Discovery Landing for a business known as the Blue Moon Mining Company to harvest resources in space. Space Mountain was active during the 1899 world's fair where it hosted public excursions to space and back.
Discovery Landing would be the first of five, "Space Mountains" across the world. Two of these were located in Tomorrowland and were known as Starport Seven-Five and TL Space Station 77 with them having likely been built after the year 1986. Unlike Discover Landing Station, these stations would use teleportation and space-flight with those of Tomorrowland having been run by the League of Planets. Discovery Landing Station would continue to be an active space-station into the late-20th/21st century but it is unknown if it updated its technology.
Points of interest[]
- Columbiad Cannon: The Columbiad was a massive and intricate cannon which could safely fire objects into orbit.
- Electro-de-Velocitor: This was a large machine used to transport rockets from space back to Discovery Landing with a slower descent.
- Gun Depot: This area was used to load the Columbiad Cannon and begin space missions.
- Lounge: This was a lounge area used by the Baltimore Gun Club.
Development history[]
Disneyland Paris' Space Mountain was inspired by Jules Verne's novel De la Terre à la Lune where the Columbiad was a cannon constructed in Tampa, Florida. In development, this incarnation of the attraction would have been known as Discovery Mountain, a name inspired by Discoveryland and the unbuilt Discovery Bay expansion of Disneyland. The initials of, "DM" are still used throughout the attraction because of this.
Appearances[]
Space Mountain[]
Disneyland Paris[]
Discovery Landing is the setting of this attraction.
Magic Kingdom[]
In the entrance to Starport Seven-Five is a screen mentioning Discovery Landing in Paris as an active Earth space-port.
Trivia[]
- Within the lounge area are quotes from the novel De la Terre à la Lune.
Gallery[]
