This spacecraft is being developed under a contract with NASA probably worth $2.6 billion to ferry astronauts to and from the global Space Station, with the first flights expected to start by 2017.

As for Boeing, we’ve only seen exterior shots of its CST-100 Starliner, revealed at the Grand Opening Ceremony at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center earlier this month. “But Dragon was also designed from the beginning to carry people, and today SpaceX is finalizing the necessary refinements to make that a reality”. “With four windows, passengers can take in views of Earth, the Moon, and the wider Solar System right from their seats…” Between that and its roles in NASA’s space station commercial resupply and crew taxi programs, SpaceX is forcing the big primes to cut costs and innovate, to the government’s benefit.

The spacecraft’s only punch of color other than from its windows is from the flat panel displays of the capsule’s forward-mounted control panel.

It has an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) that provides a comfortable and safe environment for crewmembers.

Someday, Elon Musk just might get humans to Mars.

NASA has in fact taken different approaches to reviewing the company-led Falcon 9 and Antares failure investigations, and the agency’s explanation of why is not terribly convincing – it likely won’t do much to counter perceptions of favoritism toward SpaceX.

SpaceX wants to use two of the company’s own Falcon 9 two-stage rockets – which have been successfully delivering spacecraft into orbit since 2012 – to launch a whole fleet of small satellites into low orbit to, theoretically, reach every part of the earth with fast Wi-Fi, effectively bringing every citizen of the planet headfirst into the digital age in one fell swoop.

The future is here, or that’s how it seems while taking in the newly released images of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.