Newest Walt Disney World Attraction, Mission: SPACE, Presented by Compaq, Scheduled for Lift-Off in 2003 at Epcot

The next Walt Disney
World Resort attraction will go where no thrill ride has gone before — deep
space, announced Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World Resort, and Michael
Capellas, CEO of Compaq Computer Corporation.

Walt Disney World Resort’s newest attraction, Mission: SPACE, to be
presented by Compaq Computer Corporation, will lift off at Epcot in 2003.
It’s the latest in a series of new attractions and entertainment offerings at
Walt Disney World Resort, continuing a period of phenomenal growth that
includes the resort’s current year-long Millennium Celebration.

Offering guests a one-of-a-kind “astronaut-like” experience, Mission:
SPACE will launch guests into a simulated space adventure — from pulse-racing
lift-off to weightlessness in outer space.

In association with former NASA advisors, astronauts and scientists, Walt
Disney Imagineering created Mission: SPACE with new technologies, making it
the first ride system ever created to take guests straight up in simulated
flight.
Set decades into the future, guests are transported in time and place
to an International Space Training Center where they will encounter simulated
challenges faced by real astronauts.

Plans for Mission: SPACE will be aboard NASA’s International Space Station
shuttle flight, the scheduled April 24 launch of “Atlantis.”

“The combination of Disney magic and Compaq technology will create a truly
one-of-a-kind guest experience,” said Weiss.
“Epcot is the perfect setting,
continuing the park’s dedication to the explorer in all of us with its unique
attractions that inspire us to discover new worlds.”

“Computers are vital in developing space programs today and well into the
future,” said Capellas.
“With some of the most advanced technology ever
produced, Mission: SPACE will provide guests with a rare glimpse into a world
where the possibilities for computers and space flight are endless.”

With a career in the NASA space program that spanned more than 30 years,
six-time NASA shuttle astronaut Story Musgrave is an ongoing consultant to
Disney’s Mission: SPACE project.
Musgrave calls the new attraction, “a place
where guests can imagine our future in space and their role in it, walking in
the footsteps of heroes and building on the wealth of technology we’ve
developed to date.”

Mission: SPACE will be in a new Epcot Future World facility next to the
popular attraction Test Track, presented by General Motors.

Compaq is a major provider of servers, PCs and services to The Walt Disney
Company and its Internet initiatives.
Mission: SPACE represents a broadening
of the relationship between Compaq and The Walt Disney Company.