This “Lunar Flight Certificate,” was given out to guests visiting Disneyland’s Rocket to the Moon attraction in the park’s early years.

Though this example from 1956 is unused, a guest had the opportunity to add his/her name and date to the blanks that bookend the text, which speaks of the simulated journey led by TWA rocket-pilot Captain Collins upon which guests could embark…from Tomorrowland to the moon and back again.

Know All Ye By These Presents:

 

            that _______________________________________

 

     has rocketed round trip to the moon from the Disneyland Spaceport via TWA Rocket Ship and is hereby awarded this Lunar Flight Certificate.

 

The distance to the moon, 238,857 miles, is exceeded daily by TWA on its regular Earth flights across the U.S.A., Europe, Africa & Asia.

 

Disneyland, California

 

Date _____________________                                    TWA Rocket Ship Captain: P.J. Collins

TWA’s Rocket to the Moon was an early Disneyland attraction that consisted of a circular room, doubling as the interior of a Moonliner Rocket. In the center of the floor sat a large, round projection screen, with another directly above on the ceiling. Upon blast-off, guests seated in one of three tiered rows were able to watch their flight unfold, looking down to view the quickly-vanishing earth below, or up towards their lunar destination. After orbiting the moon, and learning some fun facts about space in the process, all aboard returned safely to Disneyland. Rocket to the Moon, in its original state lasted until 1961, before sponsorship switched over and the attraction was re-named. Several incarnations of the ride would exist over the years, until it closed indefinitely in 1992.

This Disneyland souvenir from the first full-year of the park’s operation is a nod to the classic attraction whose Moonliner marquee came to represent not only Rocket to the Moon but the whole of Tomorrowland in virtually all photographs and renderings of the area in the park’s first decade.