From what I know the ateroid is only turned on when Rockin' Space Mountain is operational. Real shame though.
Did they even turn it on during rockin? I dont remember hearing about that.
From what I heard the rockin' thing never worked out they way they wanted it to and it ownt be back again. I heard they are actually removing the ROCKIT lights from the sign.
It would have been cool if the ride changed between night/day settings. Where you have one soundtrack and set of effects for the day guests and then a more pumping soundtrack and some different effects (like the asteroid attack) for the night. That might have evne been the original idea.