Yesterday marked an incredible anniversary for space exploration: 51 years since the Apollo 11 mission and moon landing. Incredibly, Disneyland visitors on July 20, 1969 had the opportunity to watch the events unfold live from inside the park.
In Tomorrowland, across the plaza from Flight to the Moon, visitors watched an attraction become reality.
Source: Disney Parks Blog
Apollo 11 landed the Eagle lunar module at roughly 1:15 pm Pacific time, and the moon walk began just before 8pm. Visitors swarmed the makeshift movie theater in the land’s central plaza, almost exactly where Space Mountain would stand eight years later.
Walt Disney’s curiosity about storytelling in space extended beyond the park. Disney produced 2 television specials about space and the moon in 1955, and then another about Mars in 1957. Legend has it President Eisenhower requested the first special, “Man in Space”, be screened at the Pentagon. Walt also visited the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1965, seeing firsthand how the Apollo program was progressing.
Source: Walt Disney Family Museum
Walt died in 1966, three years before the Apollo 11 mission. Though he did not live to see the moon landing, his magical park helped share the incredible moment in history with hundreds of visitors. It was storytelling at its finest – drama, triumph, and a little bit of magic.
Wish I could have been there! What a place to watch the moon landing. As a young kid I had seen the Tomorrowland special “Man in Space” and was primed to see the big TWA Moonliner when we finally made it to Disneyland. After entering the park my parents took me straight to the rocket. I’ll never forget the excitement.