You’ve been taken to the moon and back on the Rocket to the Moon. Now, perhaps you’d like to pilot your own rocket. Climb into an Astro-Jet. You won’t break the sound barrier, but you will have fun circling around, while controlling the elevation of your craft with a small lever.

After your ride on the Astro-Jets, visit the adjacent Tomorrowland Flight Circle. Watch gasoline powered model airplanes, cars, and boats go around and around. You can hear their loud and annoying sound from all over Tomorrowland.

In Disneyland, the Astro-Jets opened in March 1956 when the park was just eight months old. The ride replaced the Court of Flags, a formation of 48 flag poles flying the flag of every state of the United States.

The Astro-Jets closed in 1966, to be replaced the following year by the Rocket Jets (1967-1997).

In May 1998, as part of the 1998 New Tomorrowland, Disneyland opened another “circling rockets” attraction—the Astro Orbitor. It marks the entrance to Tomorrowland, just off Disneyland’s central Plaza, just like the World Clock did from 1955 to 1966. As with the original Astro-Jets, the Astro Orbitor loads at ground level. The Astro Orbitor has golden circling planets and moons to make the ride more interesting to the riders, and to make the attraction a giant kinetic sculpture.

Rather than looking “Space Age,” the Astro Orbitor has more of a 19th-century look.

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© 1997-2010 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated June 17, 2010.

Photograph of the Astro-Jets with large tree in foreground: Charles R. Lympany, courtesy of Chris Taylor.
Photograph of the Astro-Jets with Skyway sign in background: Charles R. Lympany, courtesy of Chris Taylor.
Photograph of the Astro Orbitor: 2004 by Werner Weiss.