SpaceX reveals their “DRAGON V2” spacecraft. Astronaut Ferry A-Go-Go!

Elon Musk has revealed SpaceX’s first manned spacecraft, the Dragon V2. The motherfucker is designed to carry up to seven astronauts to the International Space Station, and hopes to be doing so by 2017.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has revealed its first manned spacecraft at a live launch event in California. The Dragon V2 is capable of carrying seven astronauts for several days to and from the International Space Station, docking automatically with the ISS, and landing gently “almost anywhere on Earth” using its propulsion system.

Musk described the version 2 as a “big leap forward in technology” from the first Dragon. He also emphasized the reusability of the craft, saying the Dragon V2 could “land anywhere on earth with accuracy of helicopter,” as “a modern spaceship should land.” The SpaceX head demonstrated the craft’s new capabilities in an animated video, showing a mock-up of the Dragon’s docking process and subsequent descent back to Earth, before climbing inside the capsule.

Musk said SpaceX designed the vehicle’s surprisingly uncluttered interior to be “very simple and very clean.” The craft’s controls are mounted on a bank of screens that swing down over a set of black and beige bucket chairs. Critical controls, such as those needed in an emergency, have dedicated manual buttons in the center of the command console. Musk also pointed out the Dragon V2’s “SuperDraco” thrusters, powerful engines that he said would be the first “fully printed” engines to be used for spacecraft.

NASA hopes the Dragon V2 will be ready to ferry astronauts between the ISS and the surface of the Earth by 2017 or 2018. It was designed as part of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Development program, which stipulates that competing firms develop craft capable of delivering four crew members into space, before returning them safely. Three other firms, Boeing, Blue Origin, and Sierra Nevada, also received funding from NASA to create their own vehicles. [The Verge]