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INFOGRAPHIC: Inside Look at SpaceX's Dragon Capsule

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The privatespaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has added a newspacecraft to its fleet ? the Dragon space capsule ? that promises to be thefirst commercial spacecraft ever to make a round trip to low-Earth orbit.

Designed tolaunch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, the Dragonspace capsule are expected to initially make unmanned cargo deliveryflights to the International Space Station. But they could eventually bemodified to serve as private space taxis for orbit-bound astronauts. Here's aninside look at the Dragonspacecraft:

<a href="/10429-infographic-spacex-dragon-capsule.html"><img src="http://www.space.com/images/dragon-capsule-spacex-101207c-02.jpg" alt="An inside look at SpaceX's Dragon capsule that will fly to the International Space Station on the Falcon 9 rocket." width="580" border="1"/></a><br /> Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Editor's Note: This report has been updated to include additional spacecraft comparisons with SpaceX's Dragon space capsule.

 

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Karl Tate
Karl Tate
Space.com contributor

Karl's association with Space.com goes back to 2000, when he was hired to produce interactive Flash graphics. From 2010 to 2016, Karl worked as an infographics specialist across all editorial properties of Purch (formerly known as TechMediaNetwork).  Before joining Space.com, Karl spent 11 years at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press, creating news graphics for use around the world in newspapers and on the web.  He has a degree in graphic design from Louisiana State University and now works as a freelance graphic designer in New York City.