CST-100 Spacecraft Concludes Wind Tunnel Tests

The Boeing Company, one of the handful of corporation working with NASA under the provision of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, announces the achievement of an impressive milestone in the development of its CST-100 unmanned space capsule.

The spacecraft has recently completed its primary wind tunnel tests, and it managed to endure everything engineers threw at it successfully. The vehicle operated within nominal parameters, a fact that gives the company the trust in the project necessary to move it along.

When completed, CST-100 will compete directly against spacecraft such as Space Exploration Technology Corporation's (SpaceX) Dragon, or Orbital Sciences Corporation's (OSC) Cygnus capsule. Both of these main competitors are in their advanced stages of demonstration.

SpaceX conducted its first test flight using the Dragon in December 2010. It managed to put the capsule in low-Earth orbit, have it spin around the planet several times, and then make a splash in the Pacific Ocean, from where it was recovered afterwards.

Now, Boeing needs to play catch-up, and the new tests are an excellent step in this direction. Engineers ensured that the capsule is structurally sound, meaning that it can be operated safely both in the atmosphere and in orbit, Space reports.

The tests were carried out in a ultra-high speed wind tunnel at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), in Moffett Field, California. Boeing used a 12-by-14-inch (31-by-36-centimeter) aluminum model of the Crew Space Transportation-100 vehicle.

“As engineers, we like data and numbers, and you can take all of this and make something meaningful out of it. We can reduce it down and provide a clearer picture of what we will experience in flight,” Dustin Choe, an engineer at the Boeing Company, explains in a statement.

He adds that hundreds of sensors installed throughout the CST-100 test model provided multiple points of data entry in a huge database. Engineers will analyze these information after all wind tunnel tests are completed, later this month.

Boeing is developing CST-100 as a means of delivering cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). However, the company also plans to convert the capsule into a manned spacecraft in a few years. The capsule could become able to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit, covering NASA's gap in capabilities.