SpaceX unveiled a sleek, white gumdrop-shaped space capsule that aims to carry up to seven astronauts to the International Space Station and return to land anywhere on Earth
The Dragon V2, short for version two, is the first attempt by a private company to restore Americans’ ability to send people to the orbiting space station in the wake of the space shuttle program’s retirement in 2011.
“It’s all around, I think, really a big leap forward in technology. It really takes things to the next level,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
SpaceX is competing with other companies including Boeing, Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin to be the first commercial outfit to take astronauts to space, possibly as early as 2017.
Until then, the world’s astronauts must rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft at a cost of $70 million per seat.
