The trial crew (from left): NASA Crew Survival Engineering Team
Lead Dustin Gohmert, NASA Astronaut Tony Antonelli, NASA Astronaut Lee
Archambault, SpaceX Mission Operations Engineer Laura Crabtree, SpaceX
Thermal Engineer Brenda Hernandez, NASA Astronaut Rex Walheim, and NASA
Astronaut Tim Kopra
With the space shuttle program now officially over, the United States
needs a new reusable vehicle for getting supplies to and from the
International Space Station. NASA is considering the Dragon spacecraft,
designed by California-based SpaceX Exploration Technologies, to take
over that role. The Dragon’s scheduled late March/early April test
flight to the ISS will be unmanned, utilizing a cargo configuration of
the spacecraft. Last Friday, however, SpaceX released photographs of an
engineering model of of its planned seven-passenger crew cabin, complete
with a crew that included real live astronauts.