SpaceX just let people crawl into its new spaceship for NASA astronauts — here's what it's like inside

SpaceX just let people crawl into its new spaceship for NASA astronauts â€" here's what it's like inside SpaceX ...

SpaceX just let people crawl into its new spaceship for NASA astronauts â€" here's what it's like inside

SpaceX

SpaceX allowed a few reporters into its Hawthorne, California headquarters on Monday for close-up looks at a new spaceship and spacesuit for NASA astronauts.

The aerospace company, founded by tech mogul Elon Musk, built its Crew Dragon hardware as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. Boeing also designed a new seven-person space capsule for NASA called the CST-100 Starliner.

NASA launched program in 2010 to replace its (now-retired) space shuttle fleet with privately developed American spacecraft â€" and stop paying Russia more and more money to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

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Samantha Lee/Business Insider NASA is about to launch InSight: a new, $850-million Mars lander that will probe the red planet's secrets like never before. InSight is just one of dozens of robotic and satellite missions that humanity has rocketed to Mars over the decades. These spacecraft have beamed back dazzling photos, inspired sci-fi movies like "The Martian", and even helped give Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, the idea to colonize the red planet with the Big Falcon Rocket. While scientists readily admit they have much to learn about Mars, including what the inside of Mars looks like (a mystery InSight will try to solve), what we have found out so far is incredible.

Crewed test launches of each spaceship are slated for 2019. However, SpaceX is poised to send the first commercial astronauts into space, given that Boeing must fix leaky fuel valves on the CST-100 Starliner.

Some who climbed aboard SpaceX's mockups shared photos and videos of the event on Twitter and Instagram.

Here's a sample of some of the best footage and pictures, and what journalists said it was like inside:

For Monday's media event, SpaceX took a full-size mockup of the Crew Dragon capsule and rolled it outside its headquarters in Greater Los Angeles.

Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1029077289865072643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Mockup of Crew Dragon capsule, with first-ever landed Falcon 9 first stage in background at #SpaceX HQ pic.twitter.com/5AKQkYcqns

The spaceship is reportedly identical in appearance to the ones astronauts will fly, minus the expensive rocket engines.

Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1029047991313682434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The @SpaceX Crew Dragon mock-up capsule and our awesome photographer Raul Marin . ⁦@CNBC⁩ pic.twitter.com/E3tstgtBjQ

Source: Twitter

Aerospace photographer Jack Beyer said he was "on the ceiling" about climbing aboard the ship. This ultra-wide-angle video he shared on Twitter shows what it's like to crawl inside.

Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1029054770110234624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Beyond excited to be at @SpaceX today for a Commercial Crew update! Here’s what it looks like to climb into a Crew dragon. @NASASpaceflight #SpaceX pic.twitter.com/1Ncmn98SKy

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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• SpaceX is quietly planning Mars-landing missions with the help of NASA and othe r spaceflight experts. It's about time.
• NASA just gave $44 million to 6 private companies â€" including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin â€" to develop 'tipping point' space technologies
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SEE ALSO: This veteran NASA astronaut has tried SpaceX and Boeing's new spaceships â€" here's what she thinks

DON'T MISS: SpaceX is quietly planning Mars-landing missions with the help of NASA and other spaceflight experts. It's about time.

Source: Google News US Science | Netizen 24 United States