Epcot Center

Nigh time photograph of Epcot's icon, Spaceship Earth, a large metallic sphere lit in blue and gold (somewhat resembles a golf ball) flanked by palm tress. Text is small and in white at the bottom.

Spaceship Earth, the 18-story geodesic sphere and theme park attraction, is the symbolic icon of EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), a Utopian city of the future planned by Walt Disney.

The term was coined by Buckminster Fuller, known for his innovative work with geodesic domes among other things. And it’s reported that popular science fiction writer Ray Bradbury helped design the dome and original storyline for the attraction. Construction took over two years, and was sponsored originally by Bell Systems before the breakup, then AT&T until 2004; German company Siemens took over sponsorship after that. The theme of the attraction being a travel through the timeline of human communication, it is updated regularly to reflect current realities.