Google Maps' Street View Adds International Space Station

By Denise See, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, July 23, 2017

The International Space Station can now be viewed on Google Maps' Street View, which made it the first location outside of Earth on the platform.

Google Maps recently released a video that took viewers behind the scenes of this project. In order to make it a reality, astronauts were tasked to capture 360-degree panoramas inside of the International Space Station. They also took photos of the Earth from their perspective up in space.

"The sheer size of the space station is huge. It's unbelievably big," ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet said. "I wish people could see it with their own eyes, so that's why in the future we hope to make it more accessible with projects like Google Street View."

Google Maps wanted to take their Street View to the next level, and with this, people have a more personal feeling of what it would be like to be inside the International Space Station. There are also text descriptions that pop up, which has never been done before on Google Maps. These offer viewers a more in-depth understanding of what the equipment on display is for or what it does.

"We've mapped all over the world and really wanted to see where we could go. And why not space?" Matthew Potter from Google Street View asked.

"The street view collection will bring to people the wonders of science and engineering and what it takes for people to go all the way up to space and look down back to us," Alice Liu from Google Street View said.

Liu also told the BBC that she believed it was important for people to know about what it took to get the International Space Station up and running. She explained that each component had to travel in a space shuttle or rocket to make it to where it is now. These components were then constructed or assembled in space.

Users can view 17 different areas of the International Space Station on Google Maps' Street View.