Disney Files Permit for Spaceship Earth Refurbishment at EPCOT Beginning August 25

Posted: Wednesday July 2, 2025 7:30am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has filed a Notice of Commencement ahead of the upcoming refurbishment of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT, set to begin August 25, 2025.

Spaceship Earth overview

The permit names Engineering Design Services, LLC as the contractor, with the scope listed simply as “General Construction.” According to the firm’s website, it focuses on structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering for themed entertainment projects - suggesting some of the work is possibly related to ride system maintenance and behind-the-scenes infrastructure.

While Disney has not officially announced any show changes, there have been recent indications that the in-vehicle video display screens may be updated during this closure. The current displays, used for the interactive descent experience, have remained largely unchanged since their introduction during the 2008 refurbishment.

Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth is expected to reopen later this year, though a specific return date has not been released. No major changes to narration or storyline are expected as part of this round of work.

EPCOT World Celebration

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HMF2 days ago

They also have the resources to fix the yeti and several dozen other things they could do but won't

HMF2 days ago

Yes, I am hoping that the screens disappear during the next refurb too.

DreamfinderGuy2 days ago

Nope, screens were always staying even with that refurb. Think about it, the language select is a quality of life feature that makes SSE more accessible. Removing the screens would mean taking time and money to chop them off and fill the holes in every vehicle, plus removing the language select. Don’t believe removing them was ever even really considered.

tparris2 days ago

Screens won’t be removed even with the big refurb? I know the 2020 redo got axed but wasn’t the plan with that one to remove the vehicle screens completely?

Pájaro Naranja2 days ago

Disney has the money and resources to give Spaceship Earth the major refurb it deserves but they keep kicking the can down the road. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

jah49552 days ago

yes...but I was hoping they'd at least not replace screens (except for those that were actually broken)....with the logic they'd fall apart sooner to become an additional motivator for re-imagining the ending sooner rather than later.

DreamfinderGuy2 days ago

Yeah, I don’t think they’re OLED. Wondering if there was a mixup with someone misreading QLED or if they just decided to cheap out. Quick way to tell would be checking vehicle 192, assuming the test panel they had in it hasn’t also been replaced as part of this downtime.

HMF2 days ago

Unfortunately, We already knew that.

trainplane32 days ago

I don't think they're OLED at all. Looking at the pictures, they have that glow regular LCD displays have. And you shouldn't have to re-render anything to look better if they were OLED. There would be a noticeable difference just in the lack of screen glow from the screen if it were OLED.

DreamfinderGuy2 days ago

I see it as future proofing. Screens aren’t going anywhere when the proper refurb happens, they just hopefully won’t be used aside from the language select screen

jah49552 days ago

This tells me we're stuck with the 2007 ending for a while yet to come? :(

DreamfinderGuy2 days ago

I don’t think I would have noticed if I didn’t know screen replacements were part of the project scope ahead of time. Functionally no difference for the time being, other than perhaps the more washed out displays some cars used to have are now looking better.

dmc4932 days ago

I knew I wasn’t going crazy, it’s the first thing I noticed and yes it’s in the 180top too but if you blink you might’ve thought they were just stars. In the rest of the bldg tho I couldn’t stop looking at them. Will be interested if the avg guest notices it