CST-100

[silentpom]

это будет не лучший райд по флориде

[Чебурашка]

Так атракцион ещё пять лет для Ориона испытвали.

[triage]

От 30 мая

 
Published on May 30, 2017
As Boeing continues to work toward launches of the CST-100 Starliner in 2018, teams tested the spacecrafts seats in a lab to ensure astronauts will land safely on dry land after the Starliner returns to Earth.

p.s. говорят в настоящем - первый американский капсульный корабль приземляющийся на землю.

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https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/06/commercial-crew-providers-significant-progress-flights/

Commercial Crew providers making "significant progress" toward first flights
June 27, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt



As the mid-way point of 2017 arrives, both of NASA's Commercial Crew Program service providers are making significant progress toward the first uncrewed test flights of their Dragon and Starliner capsules.

At their second quarter 2017 meeting, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel noted this progress while also discussing outstanding concerns regarding the program and vehicles as well as the positive steps being taken to address these matters.

Commercial Crew progress:

Спойлер

During last month's NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) second quarter meeting in Huntsville, Alabama, the panel noted the "significant progress" both Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) providers are making toward their first uncrewed demo flights.



...

Regardless, SpX Demo-1 will be followed – under the current plan – by Boeing's uncrewed OFT (Orbital Flight Test) in mid-2018.

Notwithstanding the ultimate commencement of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) flight operations, the ASAP noted its concern and recommendations regarding CCP provider System Engineering & Integration (SE&I) process and controls.
 
...

A large portion of this section, unsurprisingly, focused on the LOC (Loss Of Crew) gap between what Dragon and Starliner are independently capable of providing v. what the CCtCap contracts require of them.

As previously reported by NASASpaceflight.com, the CCtCap contracts establish a minimum baseline requirement that Dragon and Starliner each meet a LOC criteria of 1 in 270 – meaning for every 270 flights, only one would result in an LOC event.



Currently, there is a gap in what the data analysis shows both Starliner and Dragon are capable of providing and that 1 in 270 requirement.

...

At the NAC meeting in March, Ms. Lueders stated that SpaceX and Boeing were "still updating MMOD protection and a few other critical areas including looking at operational controls, and when we get through all that we'll be in a better place to talk about our final LOC projection."

...

The ASAP at large concurred with this finding and noted their pleasure at the progress made in closing the LOC gap for both Dragon and Starliner.

...

Importantly, though, the ASAP meeting wasn't just focused on the panel's concerns. Considerable time was dedicated to a discussion and review of the progress both providers continue to make and where each provider is in terms of schedule milestones for their first uncrewed demo flights.

Presently, Boeing is moving through software release for Starliner, and the Starliner STA (Structural Test Article) is progressing through its test regime.

Meanwhile, the first Starliner spacecraft – the one that will fly the OFT mission next year – has undergone initial power activation, and the builds for Starliner spacecrafts two and three are progressing inside Boeing's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center.

...

Finally, the ASAP noted that "Both providers have completed parachute testing for landings and are moving into production and qualification."

Moreover, SpaceX and Boeing have implemented solutions to several issues flagged by NASA toward the end of last year, and very few new issues have been identified to date.

(Images: NASA, L2 Shuttle and L2 artist Nathan Koga – The full gallery of Nathan's (SpaceX Dragon to MCT, SLS, Commercial Crew and more) L2 images can be *found here*)

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 21 мин. назад

Dragon, Orion and Starliner on stage. I'd love a speech from those three.

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Starliner meets milestones as ULA switches Atlas booster for maiden flight

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Tory Bruno‏Подлинная учетная запись @torybruno 2 ч. назад

Decatur has completed #Starliner PCM-1's Forward Truss Ring. Another step closer to sending Astronauts to space from American soil.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2017/07/20/nasas-commercial-crew-program-target-flight-dates/

NASA's Commercial Crew Program Target Flight Dates
Posted on July 20, 2017 at 7:00 am by Stephanie Martin.

The next generation of American spacecraft and rockets that will launch astronauts to the International Space Station are nearing the final stages of development and evaluation. NASA's Commercial Crew Program will return human spaceflight launches to U.S. soil, providing reliable and cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit on systems that meet our safety and mission requirements. To meet NASA's requirements, the commercial providers must demonstrate that their systems are ready to begin regular flights to the space station. Two of those demonstrations are uncrewed flight tests, known as Orbital Flight Test for Boeing, and Demonstration Mission 1 for SpaceX. After the uncrewed flight tests, both companies will execute a flight test with crew prior to being certified by NASA for crew rotation mission. The following schedule reflects the most recent publicly-releasable dates for both providers.

Targeted Test Flight Dates:
 Boeing Orbital Flight Test: June 2018
 Boeing Crew Flight Test: August 2018
 SpaceX Demonstration Mission 1: February 2018
 SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 (crewed): June 2018

This entry was posted in Boeing, CCtCap, Commercial Spaceflight, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX and tagged Boeing Commercial Crew, Commercial Crew, SpaceX on July 20, 2017 by Stephanie Martin.

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 12 мин. назад

Chris Ferguson's chart on CST-100 program notes test flights planned for "June-December 2018". #ISSRDC

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 26 мин. назад

Ferguson: CST-100 designed to be reflow up to 10 times; that's the wave of the future and important for lowering costs. #ISSRDC

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ISS National Lab‏Подлинная учетная запись @ISS_CASIS 1 ч. назад

Christopher Ferguson, @BoeingDefense provides overview of the capabilities of CST-100 Starliner at #ISSRDC

Video

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http://spacenews.com/nasa-and-companies-express-growing-confidence-in-commercial-crew-schedules/

NASA and companies express growing confidence in commercial crew schedules
by Jeff Foust — July 21, 2017


NASA, SpaceX and Boeing expect test flights of their Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner vehicles to take place next year after extensive delays. Credit: SpaceX artist's concept and Boeing

WASHINGTON — Both NASA and the two companies developing commercial crew vehicles say those efforts remain on schedule for test flights that are in some cases less than a year away.

NASA published July 20 what it called "the most recent publicly-releasable dates" of the test flights of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicles. Each company, under terms of Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts awarded in September 2014, are required to first fly an uncrewed test flight of their spacecraft, followed by one with astronauts on board.

The latest SpaceX schedule calls for an uncrewed test flight in February 2018, followed by a crewed test flight in June 2018. Boeing's schedule anticipates an uncrewed test flight in June 2018 and a crewed test flight in August 2018.

Those scheduled have slipped considerably fr om the original CCtCap announcement. At that time, NASA expected both vehicles to have completed their test flights and be certified for regular crew transportation missions to the International Space Station by the end of 2017. Both companies have suffered technical problems that have pushed back those flights, in some cases by more than a year.

A leading NASA official, though, sounded more confident about the companies' efforts towards those 2018 test flights. "Commercial crew is making great progress," said Kirk Shireman, ISS program manager, in a July 18 speech at the ISS Research and Development Conference here.

"By the next ISS R&D Conference, I expect to have flown the first Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon flight," he said. The 2018 conference is scheduled for late July in San Francisco.

...

Boeing is also confident in its ability to maintain its schedule. "We are in the middle of a very aggressive test program," said Chris Ferguson, director of Starliner crew and mission systems at Boeing, during a July 20 panel session at the conference. Prior to the flight tests, he said, is a pad abort test planned for early 2018 at White Sands, New Mexico, as well as ongoing parachute and drop tests.

Спойлер

Ferguson, in his presentation, said the flight test program would run from June through December of 2018, followed by NASA certification, and in an interview earlier in the day said those launches would take place in the "latter part of next year." He clarified, though, that the schedule of June and August test flights remains in place.

"Our schedule hasn't changed from June," he said in the interview. "That said, we've got challenges we've got to deal with and we'll let the schedule fall out wh ere it will."

Boeing may offer more clarity about that test flight schedule in the near future. Ferguson said that United Launch Alliance, who will launch the CST-100 on Atlas 5 rockets, requires a "non-handshake type of agreement" about 12 months before launch. "If there's going to be movement, of which there's been nothing planned yet, it's going have to occur soon just to keep it consistent with what ULA wants," he said.

Another upcoming milestone is the selection of a NASA astronaut to fly on the crewed flight test along with a Boeing test pilot. "Traditionally it's been about [launch] minus 12 months," he said of prior crew selections. "I think what they would like to do is have some schedule assurance before they go ahead and assign crews. Once they feel comfortable that they're about 12 months out from a crewed flight launch, I think you can see an assignment come out."

Ferguson said the first operational, or post-certification mission (PCM) for the CST-100 could fly as soon as next December, but that schedule is dependent on both the vehicle's development as well as ISS needs. "I think the next crewed mission to be assigned would launch in May of 2019," he said. "We're keeping a close eye on that. NASA has a void they'd like to fill there. We'd like to be there to fill it for them."

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 19 мин. назад

NASA's Steve Stich calls Boeing's comm'l crew test schedule in 2018 a "fairly aggressive time frame"; quarterly meeting later this week.

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Boeing Defense‏Подлинная учетная запись @BoeingDefense 3 авг.

Ground control to major console: #Starliner dashboard delivered for crew flight test vehicle. http://bit.ly/2v2Vczd  #BoeingSpace

http://beyondearth.com/ground-control-to-major-console-mesa-completes-space-dashboard/?sf103435894=1

Ground control to major console: Mesa completes space dashboard

When two test pilot astronauts head into space aboard Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, they won't just be looking out the windows to catch an array of breathtaking views.

Спойлер

It will be all business as they focus on the data coming off a console originally imagined and designed by a team in Houston, and later refined and built by a small team in Mesa, Ariz. The dashboard of displays, instruments and controls will be within arm's reach of the spacecraft's commander and pilot, much like the flight deck of a 747 aircraft or the cockpit in an Apache helicopter.

Operating on a rigorous timeline and working through challenges unique to human spaceflight, members of Mesa's Metals Center of Excellence, Electrical Center of Excellence and engineering organization came together to complete the design and manufacture in just less than a year. This innovation shows the power of pulling ingenuity fr om across the Boeing network.

The Mesa team also built a console that is hooked up to the Florida Systems Integration Lab, wh ere engineers are running through mission simulations and testing flight software. Building will begin soon on the third and final console for the spacecraft that is slated to fly the uncrewed orbital demonstration mission before it turns around for multiple NASA missions to the space station.

Starliner's first crew flight test to the International Space Station in 2018 will be Boeing's first commercial flight transporting humans to space.

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 52 мин. назад

FEATURE ARTICLE: SpaceX and Boeing in home stretch for Commercial Crew readiness - https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/08/spacex-boeing-home-stretch-commercial-crew-readiness/ ... - by @CwG_NSF Renders @kogavfx

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/08/spacex-boeing-home-stretch-commercial-crew-readiness/

SpaceX and Boeing in home stretch for Commercial Crew readiness
August 11, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt



With just one year to go until the scheduled completion of all uncrewed and crewed test flights for SpaceX and Boeing's commercial crew transportation services, the NASA Advisory Council recently held a routine review of the technical, hardware, software, and training progress the two companies are making toward the goal of returning the capability to launch people into space fr om the United States.

General Commercial Crew update:

Спойлер

At the end of July, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) held a standard, two-day series of meetings with various NASA Directorates, gaining input and insight into the agency's continued work across a variety of fields.



In specific regard to Commercial Crew, NASA's Deputy Manager for Commercial Crew, Steve Stitch, updated NAC members on the general progress of SpaceX and Boeing toward next year's inaugural crew flights of their respective vehicles.

In terms of significant pre-flight milestones still on the books for both SpaceX and Boeing are the in-flight abort test for SpaceX and the pad abort test for Boeing.

Mr. Stitch noted that Boeing's pad abort test is slated for February 2018 with SpaceX's in-flight abort test scheduled for April 2018.

This would place the notional schedule of events for Commercial Crew next year as follows:
 February – Boeing: pad abort test
 February – SpaceX: Demo 1 (uncrewed) test flight of Dragon 2
 April – SpaceX: in-flight abort test
 June – Boeing: Orbital Flight Test (OFT – uncrewed) of Starliner
 June – SpaceX: Demo 2 (crewed) test flight of Dragon 2
 August – Boeing: Crewed Flight Test (CFT) of Starliner



Additionally, with all 12 (six for each provider) of the Post Certification Missions (PCMs) for the six month crew rotations now awarded, Mr. Stitch noted that Boeing's first two PCMs are in work and that all of the milestones are completed for PCM 1 and half for PCM 2.

Mr. Stitch did not provide an update on where PCM planning stood with SpaceX.

Nonetheless, there is still a lot of work to do before the commencement of commercial crew transportation to the International Space Station.

As Mr. Stitch noted to the NAC, "In terms of overall progress, we've made a lot of headway in delivering water recovery trainers for both partners, and both providers continue to work through a lot of critical testing of hardware.
 
"We are really in the middle of qualification of both spacecraft and also for the Falcon 9 Block 5 launch vehicle.  And so we're really in that hard part of development where you start to see lots of problems, but the contractors are showing a lot of promise working through those."

Mr. Stitch also noted that teams are busy working to clear items fr om the hazards list for the overall commercial crew program – including but not limited to the issue of closing the LOC (Loss Of Crew) gap with both providers.

"Inability to meet the LOC gap continues to be a concern, and we continue to work with the partners on how to reduce that.  Had a discussion with the ASAP recently with the LOC strategy and the numbers there," stated Mr. Stitch.



Notably, given the NAC's involvement and review beyond these regularly scheduled public meetings, there was no follow-on discussion or questions regarding the LOC gap posed by members of the NAC – indicating that work to close and/or disposition the LOC gap is proceeding to the NAC's recommendations and NASA's safety standards.

Additionally, Mr. Stitch went into great detail regarding Search & Rescue (S&R) in the event of a pad or in-flight abort.

"Search-and-rescue posture has been one of our top risks, and we've worked on that very hard for the last six months.  We now have the recovery trainers in place, and we're starting to work with the various rescue jumpers on how they're going to do that training."

A key element here is the budget allocated to S&R, as NASA is responsible for the coordination and cost of such efforts with the 88th Rescue Squadron while SpaceX and Boeing participate to some degree.



"We have delivered the rescue trainers, and we've completed a rescue trainer test with SpaceX in the Banana River. We had the 88th Rescue Squadron, and they were doing basic procedures of how they would approach a capsule and how they would have people get inside and how to get flotation power established," noted Mr. Stitch.

"This was a training to develop the procedures for how to go do all of that."

Moreover, Mr. Stitch noted that while a large portion of the risk for this had been the delivery of the trainers for both Dragon and Starliner capsules (a risk eliminated by the delivery of those trainers), there is an ongoing disagreement about the number of calendar months required to properly train rescue forces for each vehicle.

"We're still converging on [the training timeline]," stated Mr. Stitch.  "I think now that we have the trainers in place, we've actually taken a risk asset out and done some training.  And we can bring the schedule together to do some more training as early as August.

"We are still tracking this in our risk system, but we're making progress."

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Boeing – CST-100 Starliner:

Спойлер

Under the list of recent accomplishments for Boeing, a slew of hardware deliveries to NASA and various test centers around the country all mark promising milestones for the overall OFT and CFT launch schedules.



A new article for parachute testing has been delivered to NASA that will be part of a parachute drop test in September to study off nominal chute deployment and landing operations as well as serve as the first time heat shield deployment will be tested in a flight environment.

Moreover, Boeing has delivered a mock-up trainer of Starliner to building 9 at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), and testing of Starliner's Structural Test Article (STA) has made significant progress in Huntington Beach, California.

For the STA, Mr. Stitch noted that forward heat shield shock test has been completed.  The forward heat shield must jettison fr om Starliner so the drogue and main parachutes can deploy.

Both the jettisoning of the forward heat shield and deployment of the chutes create a shock as mortars fire to carry out both sequences; thus, the STA has been invaluable in concretely defining the shock environment's effect on the overall Starliner structure.



Moreover, testing of the Starliner Service Module (SM) and Crew Module (CM) separation system to better understand how the complicated mechanism that has to sever lines and split the two spacecraft apart operates in various temperature extremes is also underway at Huntington.

On the other coast, Starliner spacecraft production is proceeding.  Spacecraft 1, which will be used for the pad abort test next year, is ready for upper and lower dome mate and leak checks.

The Service Module Hot Fire Test article (SMHFT) has been powered up in the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) at the Kennedy Space Center. The SMHFT will soon be shipped to White Sands for thruster testing and validation of the SM's propulsion systems.



"In terms of production and qualification, a lot of work is transpiring at the C3PF," noted Mr. Stitch. "They have three full spacecraft in flow, but they'be spent a lot of time with the SMHFT article and assembling that test article.

"A lot of emphasis has been put on that because it needs to go to White Sands. There are also two other service modules that need to get built up.  And many of the components for both of those are actually at KSC now."

Some testing of the SMHFT article has already occurred at Kennedy, notably leak checks of the SMHFT article's propulsion system. Those tests have taken place behind the C3PF, where Boeing has built their hazardous processing facility.

"That area is wh ere a lot of testing has been occurring for the SMHFT article," noted Mr. Stitch.  "They are in the process of doing a lot of checks and have been working through those in the last month and also testing all of the avionics and flight harnesses for the test article."



In addition to serving as a test area for the SMHFT article, the hazardous processing facility is wh ere Boeing plans to load and offload reactants into and out of the Service Module and the Crew Module for flight operations.

But that's not the only major event that has recently taken place at the C3PF.

Spacecraft 1 recently underwent a software test wh ere the craft was powered up and data flowed from the craft at KSC to JSC in Houston, Texas.

"We've been working a lot trying to connect the avionics lab out at Sonny Carter with the Boeing facility at the C3PF," noted Mr. Stitch. "We have done several tests of the fiber optic connections, the idea [being] that you don't have to move the hardware back and forth [every time you want to] see how the spacecraft talks to the ISS flight computers."

Additionally, Boeing and NASA have completed the first single string software docked "talk" test between Starliner and ISS.

The test was positive, and a second test later this summer will use all three strings of the software system to ensure full communication between the two crafts once they're docked.



Additionally, Boeing has also delivered the Starliner mission simulator to Building 5 at JSC and has completed several simulations for various phases of flight as they move toward wringing out the final bugs from Starliner's software.

The simulator "uses a real fight software, so it's a good way to start to understand the procedure development, how the crew displays will work, and really wring out the flight software and understand that," stated Mr. Stitch.  "About every week there is some kind of run that our joint testing has been supporting along with the crew over in Building 5."

In terms of Starliner's ride, ULA (United Launch Alliance) and Boeing have conducted an Emergency Detection System (EDS) integrated abort test.



"[The EDS] is probably one of the newest things on the Atlas vehicle for Boeing," noted Mr. Stitch. "This is the system that looks at rates and pressures on the vehicle to determine when an abort should occur during ascent if needed."

Moreover, build of the Atlas V core booster, AV-80, and the dual engine Centaur upper stage for the OFT mission in June next year have begun at ULA's Decatur, Alabama, facility near Huntsville.

Also in terms of the Atlas V, the new aeroskirt design has completed its CDR (Critical Design Review) and has one more wind tunnel test slated for later this year.

The CDR was "a very big milestone," noted Mr. Stitch.  "Once we had the aerodynamic issues solved, we had to get into the design and how we would lay out the skirt and how there are a few panels that will blow out to allow the launch abort engines to fire."

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...

(Images: SpaceX, Boeing, L2 imagery, Brady Kennison for NASASpaceFlight.com, and L2 artist Nathan Koga – The full gallery of Nathan's (Falcon Heavy to Dragon to Starliner, MCT, SLS, Commercial Crew and more) L2 images can be *found here*)

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Boeing Defense‏Подлинная учетная запись @BoeingDefense 18 ч. назад

#Starliner made the trek to @NASA White Sands Test Facility, ready to start 'hot fire' engine tests! Beyond Earth >http://bit.ly/2gLft9k 

http://beyondearth.com/starliner-to-start-hot-fire-engine-tests-in-new-mexico/

Starliner to Start "Hot Fire" Engine Tests in New Mexico

A test version of the CST-100 Starliner — Boeing's Crew Space Transportation vehicle — will soon begin a series of "hot fire" tests at NASA's White Sand Facility in New Mexico. Boeing is building the Starliner for NASA to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station, with a first crewed flight test scheduled for next year.

Спойлер

The Starliner houses a single propulsion system that supports all the spacecraft's propulsion needs from ascent until deorbit burn after its departure from the space station. System capabilities will include maneuvering in space, or contingency abort scenarios, a feature that distinguishes Starliner from its Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle predecessors.

The testing campaign will consist of simulated propellant flow rates for all mission scenarios; a fuel-loading demonstration; and hot fire tests that will include orbital maneuvers like docking with the space station, abort scenarios, and re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

The test module is one of three Starliner qualification test vehicles, including the structural test article, which is undergoing lab tests in Huntington Beach, Calif., and Spacecraft 1, which will be ground-tested before flying a simulated abort from a launch pad over the New Mexico desert.

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https://twitter.com/RiAus/status/912534935331733504
Commercial Crew Program from @Boeing for full orbit flight - 6 spaces: 5 @NASA crew + possibility for 1 paying passenger. #IAC2017


 https://twitter.com/SpaceKate/status/912534446041047040
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will launch on an Atlas V. It's designed to carry 7 people or a mix of crew and cargo. #IAC2017

 https://twitter.com/jeffayton/status/912535311233814528
Starliner @Boeing @NASA #astronauts to ISS -seven pax or mix cargo #IAC2017 autonomous but pilotable -airbag cushion 4 final landing

 https://twitter.com/SpaceKate/status/912534994983174144
Boeing want to do a Starliner test flight in 2018 - certainly uncrewed, ideally crewed test also, says Chris Ferguson. #IAC2017

 https://twitter.com/SpaceKate/status/912535446986514432
CST-100 is autonomous - can fly and dock with ISS, but the astronauts have to be able to takeover and fly it also. #IAC2017 @Boeing

Пилотируемый Возможно в 2018 году.

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 3 ч. назад

Chris Ferguson, Boeing: on track do at least uncrewed CST-100 test flight next year and "ideally" crewed test flight as well. #IAC2017

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 https://twitter.com/Astro_Joao/status/912982251004100609
I got to fly a @Boeing Starliner and dock it (successfully) to the ISS. Exciting! #iac2017

Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP

 https://twitter.com/cpyne/status/912943550433595392

[Чебурашка]

А что это за красная круглая ручка на переднем плане?