Spaceship Earth
— — a silver planet held above the lawn.
Not only on a wall.
“The geodesic sphere that greets every visitor to EPCOT, eighteen stories of triangulated aluminum catching the Florida sun. Walt Disney's optimism in three-dimensional form, opened in 1982 and still the silhouette of the whole park. Riders inside trace the long history of human communication, cave drawings to the present, while outside the ball keeps quietly turning the light.
Spaceship Earth, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Spaceship Earth stands at the entrance to EPCOT, the second of Walt Disney World's four Florida parks, opened October 1, 1982 on a former Bay Lake cypress flat near Orlando. The geodesic sphere rises 180 feet and spans 165 feet across, supported on six legs that bear roughly sixteen million pounds. Designed by structural firm Simpson Gumpertz and Heger with input from author Ray Bradbury on the ride narrative, the sphere is clad in 11,324 silver Alucobond triangles that read as a single curved skin.
The aluminum cladding catches sunlight differently through the Florida day, copper-warm at morning, near-white at noon, a soft mirror at the long Central Florida dusk. After dark the sphere becomes a programmable surface: tens of thousands of points of light tied to Walt Disney World's nightly entertainment cues. Even unlit, the curvature reads cleanly against the EPCOT lagoon and the avenue of country pavilions behind it. It is one of very few park icons designed to read at every hour.
Spaceship Earth sits inside EPCOT, the second of four Walt Disney World theme parks, which requires a dated park admission ticket. Park hours typically run 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., extended on event nights. The dark ride inside the sphere carries guests slowly through dioramas tracing the history of human communication, from cave painting through the printing press to the digital era. The standby queue moves through the legs of the structure; Lightning Lane reservations are sold through the Disney app.