Yes, the ship arcing away from the planet, as you describe, is part of
the B5 demo. The sequence is reversed; first the ship leaves the planet, THEN
it arrives at B5. Look carefully at the front of B5 and you can see it
pulling in.

I initially roughed out what I wanted in the station; basic shape and
configuration, the use of rotating sections, docking bay at the front, that
sort of thing. Peter Ledger then did the preliminary artwork, and then Ron
Thornton did the computer version.

I have to tell you, it was way cool to turn on the TV and see the Babylon
5 station on CNN after all this time. Even with the hassles, it was kinda
nifty.

jms