If you’ve ever ridden Space Mountain, Disney’s futuristic roller coaster, you likely experienced a fluttering in your belly when your rocket reached the top of the 76-foot mountain, the lights dimmed, and there was a little lurch before the high-speed turns, twists and dips began.
Engineer Darrell F. Jodoin, an alumnus of California State University, Fullerton, calls this “the whoopee! moment.” It weighed heavily on him back in 2003 when he was a technical director at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, tasked with rebuilding the iconic attraction for its 50th anniversary.
“We knew that everybody would remember the feeling they’d gotten in their stomach when they’d ridden Space Mountain in the past and if they didn’t feel it again, they’d be mad and disappointed,” says Jodoin, who now supports the vast teams involved in building the immersive and hugely anticipated Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
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Over nearly two years, more than 3,000 feet of track, along with Space Mountain's ride vehicles, were refurbished or replaced.
Finally, in the predawn hours before the ride’s re-opening on July 15, 2005, Jodoin and the lead mechanical engineer on his team climbed into a rocket. “We were the first two people to ride it,” he says. “It wasn’t under show conditions. Instead, we were riding in the dark, but that was okay.
“About 120 seconds in, we felt the magical dip, and we were all smiles. It felt just like the old Space Mountain, but much smoother, which is a quality you want in a roller coaster.”