Google adds ISS to Street View

Google Street View now offers images of the International Space Station. The service allows the user to look around the fifteen modules of the space station. Among other things, there is the opportunity to see one of SpaceX’s Dragon capsules.

The Street View view of the ISS shows descriptions of many parts of the ISS, such as the oxygen supply system, the Waste and Hygiene Compartment, or the toilet, and the EMU spacesuits.

The service offers a view from the Cupola, the module with six large windows overlooking the earth. The Soyuz craft, which is attached to the ISS, can also be seen. The images were taken while a Dragon capsule was resupplying the ISS and this can also be seen.

Google has expanded its Street View service in recent years to include notable places on Earth like the Great Barrier Reef and the bottom of oceans, but it’s the first time 360-degree images from space have been recorded. Google Earth does offer the possibility to visit the Moon and Mars.

The images were taken with DSLRs already on the ISS, and Google and NASA collaborated on a system that could capture the images under the conditions on the ISS. Astronaut Thomas Pesquet took the photos, which were stitched together after they were sent to Earth.