Take A Tour Of The International Space Station With Google Earth Street View

You’ve probably used Google Street View to check out a potential new place to live or maybe even to explore a new city. Now Street View has gone off road and taken to the sky, space and the International Space Station to be exact. In its most recent addition to Google’s “Maps” feature, Street View travels through the modules of the ISS where astronauts work and live day in and day out.

The ISS is home to up to ten astronauts at any given time and requires a minimum of three to maintain it regularly. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet returned from a six month stay on the station in June. In addition to his research and daily tasks while in space, Pesquet took the first photos used for the new Street View. In a blog post written for Google he welcomed those on Earth to take a look into life on the station. In the post he briefly explained life on the ISS and what it was like to try to capture images of life in space.

Read: Space Station Chores: Keeping ISS Clean, Free Of Germs

The conditions on the station, including the lack of gravity and the amount of equipment covering the walls, made traditional Street View capturing techniques impossible. So a team of NASA and Google employees on the ground had to come up with a method of capturing the photos in space. The method they devised ended up including a set up of bungees to help steady the camera in the astronaut's hands as well as give them specific reference points to shoot the photos from.

The resulting views are stunning and give a good idea of what the station is really like inside. Traditional photos make it seem small and cramped, but astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren says it’s actually not. In a video about the making of the ISS Street View, Lindgren said the station actually has about the volume of a five-bedroom house. “I never felt claustrophobic there, in fact if we were scheduled for different activities over the course of the day you may not see another crew member for hours and hours,” Lindgren said in the video.

Read: How To Spot The International Space Station: When Will It Fly Over?

The view covers all of the United States part of the station but also the other compartments of the station. The US Lab Module, the SpaceX Dragon docking vehicle, the Rassvet Mini-Research Module and several others are all part of the view. Users can even zoom from one module to its connecting parts. This function gives a slight simulation about what it might actually be like for the astronauts who float around the station.

Each part of the view also has an information card that accompanies the stunning 360 photos. So if you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking at be sure to read that. To explore the station click here.

Watch NASA and Google work to add the ISS to Google Maps and Street View: