If you’re like me, you made sure to watch the recent launch of the SpaceX Dragon capsule and its docking with the ISS. Maybe you also had some questions about the capsule itself. Here’s some information I found.
Dragon was launched with two astronauts; however, its actual crew capacity is seven. That may not seem like that much for those who grew up with the Space Shuttle, but remember the old Apollo capsules only carried three astronauts. Here are some good graphics that demonstrate the differences in past and future designs (Note: I did not create these images, copyrights are attached).
The Orion is the capsule NASA was working on for future lunar missions and possibly Mars. The CST-100 is the crewed module currently being developed by Boeing. Because of issues during its last test flight, there will probably be at least one more unmanned mission before they try to send up astronauts on it.
The designs on the left are the current Russian and Chinese capsules. When comparing the two on the far right, keep in mind they were both designed for longer duration missions.