Tag: test

Boeing Starliner Crewed Test Flight Passes Critical Review

Space News reports, “The first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is a step closer to launch after completing a major pre-launch review April 25. NASA announced at an April 25 briefing that, at the completion of the two-day Flight Test Readiness Review, officials approved plans to proceed with the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, with a launch scheduled for 10:34 p.m. Eastern May 6 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex (SLC) 41.”
Full Story (Space News)

KC-46 RVS, Refueling Pod Fixes Delaying Test Process

Aviation Week reported that the Pentagon’s operational test and evaluation office “has collected all the data it can on the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus, as it awaits two key fixes to the tanker – a revamp of the aircraft’s wing refueling pods and the long-awaited redesign of its Remote Vision System.”
Full Story (Aviation Week – Subscription Publication)

GA-ASI Completes Test of Small UAS Aerial Recovery System

The Drive reports GA-ASI has “begun flight demonstrations of a system it’s developed that will allow small drones to be launched and recovered in mid-air from larger uncrewed aerial vehicles. … The concept is known to the company as the Aerial Recovery System for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Air-Launched Effects (SUAS/ALE).” A media release from GA-ASI “reveals that a system demonstration took place over the Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, on September 20, 2023.”
Full Story (The Drive)

NASA Completes Another RS-25 Test

ExecutiveGov reported that NASA “has completed another hot fire test of an RS-25 certification engine as part of a test series to certify the production of the redesigned engines that will be used for the Space Launch System rocket to support future Artemis missions.” NASA said Friday that the engine “was fired for more than eight minutes at up to 113 percent power, exceeding the required 111 percent level to power the SLS during launch.” The 11th hot fire test “was conducted on the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.”
Full Story (ExecutiveGov)

NASA Carries Out Hot Fire Test of RS-25 Engine

ExecutiveGov reports that NASA has conducted a hot fire test of an RS-25 certification engine on the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, “to validate its performance capabilities in supporting future deep space missions.” The engine was powered for eight and a half minutes by firing up to 113% power, which surpasses the requirement of 111% power to launch NASA’s Space Launch System for future Artemis missions. The hot fire “is part of a test series to certify production of the redesigned RS-25 engine for future deep space exploration missions, starting with Artemis V.”
Full Story (ExecutiveGov)

Artemis I’s Orion Capsule to Test Heat Shield

Aviation Week reports that at the close of the upcoming “Artemis I test flight, an uncrewed Orion capsule will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere faster and hotter than any previous human spacecraft, validating the heat shield’s ability to protect astronauts returning from the Moon and eventually Mars.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Wisk Aero Details Electric Test Aircraft, Production Plans

Aerospace America reported that Wisk Aero “showed off one of the electric test aircraft it has flown over the years and announced plans to reveal in October the first production aircraft of its next-generation design” at its company tent at the Farnborough Airshow. The production model of Wisk’s eVTOL “will have four seats instead of the two in the Cora test aircraft on display.”
Full Story (Aerospace America)