After passing through the Zig Zag Corridor, guests finally reached the loading area. Here they watched a safety video featuring Asturnaut Gordon Cooper and then boarded either the Alpha or Omega track. Both of these tracks were identical except for the fact that Alpha track is ten feet longer.
===Original Ride===
Space Mountain begins with guests boarding their "rockets". The rockets then take off passing the Space Port queue and the Mission Control booth. The jets the go up a lift hill and down a small slope. This leads to a circular tunnel lined with blue lights. Here energy can be building up, and eventually propelling guests to the other end of the dome. Here, the rockets do a 180 degree turn and go up another lift hill. A mirror positioned at the end of the track, gives riders the allusion that they are about to collide with another rocket. If riders look up, they are able to see projections of Earth, stars, comets, meteors, and asteroids above them. This adds to the feeling that the rockets are indeed flying through space.
As the rockets continue on, they go down a quick dip and then a series of twists and turns. At this point in the attraction, the ride is taking place in almost complete darkness. In the dark, guests then fall down a 38 degree drop, the steepest in the attraction. Space Mountain ends with guests passing through a red, swirling wormhole before reaching the unloading area.