Spaceship Earth to Be Reimagined at EPCOT

Disney has confirmed that Spaceship Earth at EPCOT will be reimagined. The announcement came during the "Horizons: A Carousel of Progress" showcase at D23, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, with Walt Disney Imagineering's Ali Rubinstein and YouTuber Mark Rober presenting the plans on stage.

The change is conceptual rather than cosmetic. Today the ride traces the history of human communication, climbing from cave painting through the printing press to the early computer era before descending. The reworked version widens that frame to human connection, a theme Disney positions as more durable and more recognisably EPCOT, and extends the story into the internet age and beyond.

Two decades in the making

This would be the attraction's first substantial update in roughly 20 years. Spaceship Earth has operated since EPCOT opened in 1982.

Spaceship Earth by the numbers

Walter Cronkite narrated a script that was added to the attraction in 1986. In fact, since opening, there have been four narrators for Spaceship Earth.
The structure is called a “geodesic sphere” because it’s a perfectly round structure that is supported in the air by three pillars.
The attraction stands at 180 feet tall with 2.2 million cubic square feet of space inside the geosphere.
Spaceship Earth is one of the most complicated ride systems Walt Disney Imagineering has ever created because the ride incorporates a continuously moving train of vehicles that spiral up into the structure before turning “backward” to come back down to Earth.
The storyline currently follows the history of human innovation, from prehistoric times to the 21st century.

Background: the update that never happened

Long-time guests have heard a version of this before. Disney announced an ambitious Spaceship Earth overhaul back in 2019, complete with concept art and a "Story Light" effect running through the ascent. That project was shelved in 2020 during pandemic-era cost cutting and quietly never returned.

So far this announcement carries no closure date, no reopening window, and no scene-by-scene detail — just a stated direction. Whether it lands where the 2019 version didn't is the question worth watching over the next year.