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[b]Enter the Dragon, Please take your Seats[/b] [i]SpaceX Completes Important Commercial Crew Milestone[/i] Recently, SpaceX completed an important milestone — the first NASA Crew Trial, one of two crew tests as part of SpaceX's work to build a prototype Dragon crew cabin. For this milestone SpaceX demonstrated that our new crew cabin design will work well for astronauts in both nominal and off-nominal scenarios. It also provided our engineers with the opportunity to gain valuable feedback from both NASA astronauts and industry experts. [i][b]Above[/b]: SpaceX and NASA conducted a day-long review of the Dragon crew vehicle layout using the Dragon engineering model equipped with seats and representations of crew systems.[/i] The engineering prototype includes seven crew seats as well as representations of crew accommodations such as lighting, life support and environmental control systems, displays, cargo racks, and other interior systems. During the day-long test, SpaceX and NASA evaluators, including four NASA astronauts, participated in human factors assessments which covered entering and exiting Dragon under both normal and contingency cases, as well as reach and visibility evaluations. [i][b]Above[/b]: The test crew included (from top left): NASA crew survival engineering team lead Dustin Gohmert, NASA astronauts Tony Antonelli and Lee Archambault, SpaceX mission operations engineer Laura Crabtree and thermal engineer Brenda Hernandez, and NASA astronauts Rex Walheim and Tim Kopra.[/i] The seven seats mount to strong, lightweight supporting structures attached to the pressure vessel walls. Each seat can hold an adult up to 6 feet 5 inches tall, 250 pounds, and has a liner that is custom-fit for the crew member. [i][b]Above[/b]: With all seven crew members in their seats, Dragon has sufficient interior space for three additional people to stand and assist the crew with their launch preparations.[/i] [i][b]Above[/b]: NASA Astronaut Rex Walheim, SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk and SpaceX Commercial Crew Development Manager and former NASA Astronaut Garrett Reisman standing inside the Dragon spacecraft during testing activities.[/i] In fact, Dragon has so much interior volume, that we could place an entire three-person Russian Soyuz capsule descent module inside Dragon's pressure vessel.
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