Ground Control to Major Google: Space Station Street View Is Here

Take a self-guided tour and imagine what it is like to be an astronaut

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Forget views of side streets and poorly parked cars – why not explore the International Space Station (ISS) instead? Earlier this week Google Maps released its first-ever Street View in space, and now, Earthlings can virtually navigate through astronauts’ home away from home. Because no one could drive a van and camera around the ISS, Thomas Pesquet, a European Space Agency astronaut, collaborated with NASA and Google to take images with DSLR cameras already aboard the craft. The tunnel-like interior is filled with wall-to-wall cables and equipment, so navigation is trickier than on Earth. But a scattering of helpful tags identify locations and equipment that people unfamiliar with astronaut life might not recognize. Yours truly ended up in a bathroom on one of her first navigational clicks, but maybe you will have better luck.

If the blurbs of information only increase your curiosity about daily life on the ISS, NASA astronaut Suni Williams explains all about sleeping, eating and manipulating that strange toilet in this video from 2014, below. Pair her explanations with the immersive Street View and maybe you will feel like an astronaut yourself.

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