Elon Musk has taken the wraps off a new spacecraft designed to ferry up to seven astronauts to the International Space Station.
The unveiling of the cone-headed craft dubbed Dragon V2 took place at the southern California headquarters of Musk's company, SpaceX. Musk declared the spacecraft a big leap forward in technology.
SpaceX is one of several private companies competing to build "taxis" for Nasa to replace the retired space shuttle fleet. It previously flew four cargo missions to the space station, delivering food and supplies.
Nasa has been relying on Russian Soyuz rockets to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit until a commercial spacecraft is ready to take over the task.
Since the shuttle fleet retired in 2011 Nasa has depended on Russian rockets to transport astronauts to orbit and back, paying nearly $71m per seat. The space agency has said it wants US companies to fill the void by 2017 and has given out seed money to spur innovation.
