CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- Space shuttle Atlantis is slated to return to Earth next week and close out NASA’s 30-year-old human spaceflight program. When it does, no U.S. spacecraft will be ready to replace its ability to rocket people into orbit.

As a stopgap measure, NASA recently agreed to a $763 million contract for 12 Russian rocket rides from 2014 through 2016. By that time, the space agency hopes at least one of four private companies it's seeding with cash will demonstrate a crew-ready spaceship.

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies), a firm started by PayPal founder Elon Musk, is widely considered to be leading the pack of firms that includes Blue Origin, the Boeing Company and the Sierra Nevada Corporation.

In addition to several successful launches of its home-grown Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX successfully launched their own capsule spaceship (called Dragon) into orbit on Dec. 8, 2010.

“Nobody else can say that,” said former astronaut Garrett Reisman, now a senior engineer working for the company on Dragon’s human-carrying capabilities. “We’re pretty confident with where we stand in terms of the competition.”

A few days before the last space shuttle launch, Reisman and other SpaceX staff hosted a tour of their rocket assembly building, launch pad, launch control center and other facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Here are some of the highlights.

Above:

Reisman addresses news media while he stands in front of the beat-up Dragon capsule mock-up recovered from the Pacific Ocean in December 2010.

Image: Dave Mosher/Wired.com