Changes

Although Mission: Space would not open until 2004, plans for a space pavilion in Epcot actually date back to EPCOT Center's early designs. In fact, in the 1977 Walt Disney Company Annual Report, the space pavilion is was one of the many planned EPCOT Center pavilions mentioned. The report describes the space pavilion as:[[Image:Bradbury.jpg|400px|thumb|Ray Bradbury (right) and John DeCuir Jr. (left) working on the original concept for EPCOT Center's space pavilion.]]

The initial space pavilion was themed to be an orbiting space station, and would have begun with guests taking off from a launch pad and heading into space <ref name= "Martin"> http://www.martinsvids.net/?p=283 </ref>. From here, guests could have explored a variety of interactive exhibits, including the pavilion’s main attraction- which would have allowed guests them to travel through space in a motion simulator theater <ref name= "Hill"/> <ref name= "Martin"/>. Looking out through walls of windows, guests would have been able to look see out into space, and even see getting a stunning view of the planet Earth. During the development of the pavilion, Imagineers consulted with famed art director John DeCuir Jr., as well as science fiction author Ray Bradbury <ref name= "Hill"/> who helped create the attraction's storyline. Although fairly well developed, plans for the space pavilion were pushed back to EPCOT Center’s “phase II” due to budget constrictions and a lack of sponsor <ref name= "Martin"/>. When another phase II pavilion [[The Living Seas]] opened in 1986, it was built on the plot of land originally designated for the space pavilion. Following the addition of Seas pavilion, the theoretical space pavilion was relocated to a new space in between [[The Land]] and Living Seas <ref name= "Martin"/>.