Ever wondered what it’s like to be an astronaut aboard the International Space Station? Now, thanks to the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Google, you can find out. {%recommended 677%}
Pesquet returned to Earth in June after six months as a European Space Agency astronaut on the ISS. During his trip, he made an exhaustive photographic survery of the interior of the station and sent the images down to Google engineers on Earth. They in turn stitched the photos together into 360-degree panoramas that can be navigated using the Google Street View interface.
So what’s it like? Words like “cramped”, “cluttered” and “claustrophobic” spring to mind for this armchair astronaut, though the explanatory notes are fascinating and the views out the window are truly superb.
Take a look for yourself here.
You can read more from Pesquet about the experience here and a video showing the behind-the-scenes process of mapping out the ISS and collecting the photos is below.