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Awesome panoramas put you in the cockpit of real spaceships

Ever dream about flying around in a real spaceship? If you have, it's not an easy dream to actually accomplish, but for those of us who can't manage it, there are some great ways to feel like you're really there.

Check out this amazing sample from a panoramic view of the flight deck of the Space Shuttle Discovery:

You can see the full 360°, zoomable version, pieced together by 360VR.com back in 2011, by clicking on this link.

Pan around, zoom in, and check everything out. It's really amazing, and even a little intimidating, given the number of buttons, switches and dials that surround you. Be sure to take a particularly close look at the back of the flight deck, since that's where the controls are for Canada's contribution to the shuttle program — the Canadarm.

That's not the only panorama that's available to us, though. You can imagine you're standing on the flight deck of the very last shuttle to go into space — the Space Shuttle Atlantis — by going to TheLastShuttle.com. Be sure to click the Fullscreen button on that one (last button on the right), to get the full effect!

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These views bring back memories of when, as a kid, I used to play in the Apollo moon landing simulator and capsule replicas at the Ontario Science Centre (always my favourite part of the trip).

With commercial spaceflight companies like SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and Virgin Galactic getting off the ground, it's raising the hopes of us dreamers that we can finally make it into space. Until then, we'll just have to make do with what we can get.

(Images courtesy: NASA, Jook Leung/360VR.com)

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