Spaceship Earth - Lake Buena Vista, FL - Geodesic Domes on Waymarking.com

Spaceship Earth is Epcot's equivalent of Cinderella Castle over at the Magic Kingdom. It is an iconic structure that tells about the theme of the park, for the most part.

The structure is actually two spheres. The inner sphere is the building membrane consisting of a thick black rubber blanket for protection unlike any other building. The outer sphere is about two feet away from the inner sphere and stands 180 feet tall, is 165 feet in diameter, and is made up of 954 custom fit triangular panels made of Alucobond. The panels contain 11,324 smaller triangles. About 1700 tons of steel were used to build the sphere, with an estimated weight of 16 million pounds.

Inside the inner sphere is a slow moving ride that gives the history of communication. The ride cars gradually climb up to the top of the sphere leading to a dramatic planetarium-like room, then gently descends back down to the lowest level. The ride components are treated as two parts. The upper 3/4 are supported by six pylon legs and the bottom 1/4 is hung off of the top. The legs extend between 120 to 185 feet deep into the ground.

In addition to Buckminster Fuller creating the geodesic dome, he also coined the term "Spaceship Earth". He first used this term in his 1969 work Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth in which he put forth a vision of the people of this planet as crew members on a cosmic voyage, bound by our shared destiny, moving toward our common future.

Sources for the above: The Imagineering Field Guide to Epcot at Walt Disney World by The Imagineers and Since the World Began by Jeff Kurtti.

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