NASA Drives Automotive Innovation

In the beginning, safety trumped comfort in spacecraft designs for human space travel. Early space capsules were small and had a seat-driven design in which most of the flight activities were performed while the crew was strapped into their seats. NASA devoted more attention to understanding how a spacecraft could provide comfort as well as safety and function. One of the first things NASA examined was the neutral body posture (NBP), or the posture the human body naturally assumes in microgravity.