The photo above was taken by Space Shuttle astronauts, and you are looking at the mid portion of an aurora. The Shuttle altitude is 200 miles, but aurora extend from 60 miles to over 1000 miles.

First, at an elevation of over 60 miles, the air is a pretty good vacuum. You might notice a faint glow all around you, but not within 10 feet of you because the excited gas is pretty thin. It would be like standing inside a rainbow - which you can't really do for different reasons! We see aurora dramatically because of their contrast with the dark sky. This contrast may not be as spectacular when you are right inside it. Since the region is being bombarded by energetic electrons, I would also suspect that your 'space craft' would build up quite an electric charge too!

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