Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has unveiled an upgraded passenger version of the Dragon cargo ship NASA buys for resupply runs to the International Space Station.

Rather than parachuting down into the ocean, the new capsule is outfitted with powerful motors and landing legs to make precision touchdowns on land, said SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk, a billionaire technology entrepreneur who also runs the Tesla Motors Inc electric car company.

"That is how a 21st century spaceship should land," Mr Musk said to an audience at SpaceX's California headquarters.

More than 32,500 people also watched the Dragon unveiling on a live SpaceX webcast.

"It is conceivable that we could do the first flight to orbit," said Mr Musk. "We would initially do it without people at the end of next year and then the first flight with people would be in 2016 and we think that would be very achievable."

Lifting the vehicle's hatch, Mr Musk settled into a reclined gold-and-black pilot's seat and pulled down a sleek, rounded glass control panel.

The cabin, designed to fly a crew of seven, looked more like a Star Trek film set than the flight deck of NASA's now-retired space shuttle.

Dragon, which launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is one of three privately owned space taxis vying for NASA development funds and launch contracts.

NASA also has been working with SpaceX, Boeing and privately owned Sierra Nevada on a related commercial programme to develop spaceships to fly astronauts, with the goal of breaking Russia's monopoly on station crew transports before the end of 2017.

The United States currently pays Russia more than $60 million (£35 million) per person for round-trip flights on the Russian Soyuz capsule.

Mr Musk hopes to bring down the cost of flying in space by reusing both the Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon spaceships.
NASA is expected to select one or two space taxi designs this summer for final development and test flights.


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