Following the addition of the wand, Epcot stayed relativity stagnant until 2003 when Mission: Space finally opened. The new attraction was a motion simulator thrill ride which was themed as an astronaut training program for the first flight to Mars. In 2005, Another simulator was added to the park, this time to the Land pavilion in the form of the new attraction Soarin'. Initially created for Disney’s California Adventure, this motion simulator gave guests the feeling they were hang gliding over California. In 2006, The Living Seas was rethemed to tie in with the Disney-Pixar movie Finding Nemo, subsequently renamed The Seas with Nemo & Friends. The pavilion now housed a dark ride attraction (also called the Seas with Nemo & Friends), as well as Turtle Talk with Crush, and the interactive exhibits in Sea Base. Overall, the pavilion took a much more of a fantasy tone, as opposed to the previously scientific tone of the pavilion. The most recent major change to Epcot came in 2007, when the Wonders of Life Pavilion closed. The pavilion had not been sponsored since 2001 when MetLife dropped its sponsorship, and had seen a decrease in popularity. The Wonders of Life pavilion remains closed to guests, except during special events like the Flower and Wine Festival.
===Construction and Layout===
In 1978 Disney announced to the world they would be constructing a new theme park, the EPCOT Center. Construction began on May 1, 1979 and was completed September 27, 1982. Epcot went under 19 different design renovations before the final World Showcase/Future World design was accepted. Originally, the east side of Future World was supposed to have shallow lagoons. This idea was eventually scrapped and East Future World became the dry side, while West Future World became the wet one. 4,000 workers worked on phase 1 of Epcot. 10,000 workers and 3,000 designers were used in total during the creation of Epcot. <!-- This included moving an astonishing. -->
While the basic plans for Epcot had now been finalized, Imagineers decided that they needed an icon, something in the skyline to draw guests into the park. The Imagineers liked the idea of the dome that Montreal had built for the 1967 World's Fair, but wanted something a little more dramatic. What they ended up building would be the world's first full geometric sphere structure, Spaceship Earth. Science fiction writer Raymond Bradbury helped design the sphere, which was 160 feet in diameter. Disney also enlisted the help of MIT to determine what kind of pressure the sphere would create under it. Disney feared that the pressure would create a wind tunnel underneath the sphere, but this ended up being untrue. Another problem that engineers faced was how to hold the sphere up. There had been little data available on geometric spheres so Disney had to look inward for a solution. What they decided to do was put six large legs between 120 and 160 feet into the ground for support. The legs were then reinforced at their base, before the sphere was built. Inside the sphere an elevator, track, and show scenes for Spaceship Earth were built.
There are actually two spheres located within Spaceship earth - an outer sphere and an inner sphere. The inside sphere is made of steel, pyramid shaped pipes. The outer sphere was then created by covering the outside with Alucobond pyramids, a polyester plastic, which was finally covered in two sheets of aluminum. The two layer sphere solved two problems for Imagineers. The first was the need to protect Spaceship Earth from fire and weather damage. The Alucobond protects the inside sphere, while also looking pleasant for guests. The other problem that Alucobond solved was the issue of run-off rainwater. Imagineers left a gap between the Alucobond pyramids which allows water to run into a gutter system in the inner sphere before eventually draining in World Showcase.
The opening day of Epcot featured seven pavilions in Future World and nine pavilions in World Showcase. The Future World pavilions all had corporate sponsors who agreed to pay for the pavilion to be constructed, as well as maintain the attractions within for a certain number of years. The opening day pavilions were:
{| class="infoList"
|-
| '''Future World (Sponsor)'''
| '''World Showcase'''
|-
| CommuniCore East (Sponsor by attraction)
| Canada
|-
| CommuniCore West (Sponsor by attraction)
| China
|-
| Journey Into Imagination (Kodak-2010)
| France
|-
| The Land (Kraft 1982-1993, Nestle 1993-2009)
| Italy
|-
| Spaceship Earth/Earth Station (Bell System 1982-1984, AT&T 1984-2005, Siemens 2005-Present)
| Japan
|-
| Universe of Energy (Exxon 1982-2005)
| Germany
|-
| World of Motion (General Motors 1982-Present)
| Mexico
|-
|
| The United Kingdom
|-
|
| The United States
|}
==Opening==
