Overview
- Disney announced the reimagining during D23’s Horizons presentation on August 15, 2026, with Imagineer Ali Rubinstein appearing onstage alongside Neil Patrick Harris and Mark Rober.
- Imagineering said the work is a concept replacement that shifts the attraction’s longtime focus from human communication to a broader theme of human connection.
- The team plans to update each scene and modernize the later portions of the ride into the internet age by adding new technology, effects and refreshed audio‑animatronics.
- Disney has not released a closure date, construction timeline, or target reopening date, so the project remains in planning and developing stages.
- Spaceship Earth opened with EPCOT in 1982 and has been updated several times since, so this announced overhaul continues Disney’s recent strategy of reworking classic attractions to keep them current for new audiences.