SpaceX Shows Off ‘Fishbowl’ Dome That Gives Astronauts Incredible Views
Image via Inspiration4
Back in July, SpaceX unveiled its one-of-a-kind toilet aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Not only is using the bathroom up in space an adventure on its own, but it’ll also be located in a glass dome at the spaceship’s nose, providing the crew with 360-degree views.
Later this month, the crew—consisting of “everyday people”—will get to enjoy the new viewing “fishbowl” from space. As this mission isn’t headed to the International Space Station, it didn’t require a docking mechanism on the nose cone. This allowed room for the glass cupola instead.
Ahead of the launch, Inspiration4’s Twitter account gave us a sneak peek of the dome, which the crew visited before the flight-hardware was shipped to Florida.
A look at Dragon’s Cupola, which will provide our Inspiration4 astronauts with incredible views of Earth from orbit!
— Inspiration4 (@inspiration4x) September 1, 2021
The crew visited the flight-hardware Cupola in California before it was shipped to Florida for integration with Dragon Resilience. pic.twitter.com/9ivMZrS1ip
The mission is funded, and will be commanded, by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who founded Shift4 Payments. The other three members include childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, aerospace professional Chris Sembroski, and geoscientist Sian Proctor. Together, they will mark “the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit.”
Dragon Resilience is set to launch on September 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the entire journey lasting three days.
Netflix is also filming a documentary series based on the mission, titled Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space. The first two episodes will air next week. Take a look at the trailer below.
On Sept 6, you’ll meet the four civilians going into space.
— Netflix (@netflix) September 2, 2021
On Sept 13, you’ll see them prepare.
On Sept 15, you’ll watch the live launch
On Sept 30, you’ll be in space alongside them
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space takes off next week pic.twitter.com/prr0RDZSXc
As the first all-civilian crew to orbit the Earth, Inspiration4 is excited to share experiments and research with @SpaceX, @BCMSpaceHealth & @WeillCornell that will help continue to broaden access to space exploration. Learn more: https://t.co/csmG8VfQS8 pic.twitter.com/aRC1lwNu1z
— Inspiration4 (@inspiration4x) August 30, 2021
[via CNET, cover image via Inspiration4]
