Mercury (1961-1963)
The Mercury spacecraft supported single-person missions around Earth orbit between 1961-1963. Given the experimental nature of this program, every single instrument panel was unique in the 20 production spacecraft. There are surprisingly few photos of the Mercury control panels, but we were able to find one below in full color.

You can see the cramped environment from this photograph from the SC18 spacecraft (Aurora 7, Piloted by Scott Carpenter).


Gemini (1965–1966)
The Gemini spacecraft supported 2-person crews in Earth orbit - there were a total of 10 manned flights. Each crewmember would sit below a large hatch, and the control panels contained unique indicators on either side of the capsule with a shared control stick in the middle.


Apollo (1968-1975)
The command and service module supported 3-person crews around Earth and Lunar orbit. You can see the explosion in complexity of the control panel between the Mercury and the Apollo spacecraft designs.



The Lunar module is incredibly simple. Check out the massive triangular windows that would allow astronauts to see the lunar surface during descent.



Space Shuttle (1981–2011)
Although Space Shuttle flights ended in 2011, the technologies developed during this program are in use in many other spacecraft currently being designed. You can see the tremendous improvement in the glass cockpit systems (vs analog gauges in the Apollo flight decks).

Looking toward the rear of the flight deck, you can see the control panel for the robotic arm in the payload bay.


SpaceX Dragon V2 (Planned)
And just for fun, here's the proposed interior of SpaceX's manned Dragon Capsule. Notice the lack of all of the manual switches that the Space Shuttle had. The Dragon interior is simple, refined, and dominated by a massive digital/flat screen control panel. Also notice the huge windows on either side of the vehicle, and the supercar-style bucket seats.