Crew Dragon was designed to be an enjoyable ride. With four windows, passengers can take in views of Earth, the Moon, and the wider Solar System right from their seats, which are made from the highest-grade carbon fiber and Alcantara cloth. (Photo : SpaceX)
When it comes to real life manned spaceflights, space agencies are known to focus more on practical usage, efficiency and reliability instead of interior design and comfort. However, since SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is in competition with Boeing Co. to become the first private space agency to take humans to Mars, the visionary created a space capsule straight out of science fiction.
Come 2017, space explorers might just ride towards the International Space Station in luxury, where this SpaceX capsule almost resembles the interior of an expensive sports car. SpaceX released on Thursday a sneak peek of the futuristic design of its Crew Dragon ship that reveals a sleek black and white interior.
SpaceX says that the Crew Dragon ship is specifically designed for an enjoyable ride. Since it possesses four windows, passengers can now revel in views of the Earth, Moon and the rest of the solar system from their seats. Astronauts will also have the option to adjust the temperature inside the capsule with a climate control system, allowing them to set it between 65 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
The displays on the Crew Dragon will also present real-time information about the state of the spacecraft's capabilities and processes, that includes its current position in space, its possible destinations and the onboard environment.
SpaceX is under contract with NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Program, where the private space agency is required to design, develop and build a space transport vehicle for astronauts.
This contract requires SpaceX and Boeing to manufacture and operate new crew vehicles in order to transport U.S. astronauts to the orbiting space station as a strategy to further remove ties with the Russians by not relying on their Soyuz rockets to transport American astronauts to space.
SpaceX already conducted numerous test flights to observe how reliable the Crew Dragon capsule can transport astronauts and keep them safe during transit where its unmanned Dragon capsules already successfully completed cargo resupply missions to the ISS.
However, their Falcon 9 rockets faced a series of failures where early this year and late last year, as the rockets are expected to launch the Crew Dragon capsule to the space laboratory. The latest Falcon 9 failure involved an explosion, moments after it was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida where the Dragon capsule is carrying supply cargo including food, fuel and scientific payload.
