Boeing [BA] and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. laid out on Jan. 26 their timelines for delivering astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017 as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program (CCP).
Boeing Vice President and General Manager for Space Exploration John Elbon told an audience at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston the company expected a crewed flight test featuring one Boeing test pilot and one NASA astronaut in July 2017. Boeing recently completed a ground segment critical design review (CDR), Elbon said, and also started construction on the crew access tower on the Atlas 5 launch pad. The Atlas 5 rocket is developed by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin [LMT].
Elbon said Boeing will form the structural test article for its CST-100 space transportation vehicle in Feb. 2015 and will also begin assembling the first piece of actual flight hardware later this year after receiving the crewed flight test vehicle’s hardware. Elbon also said Boeing is making “great progress” on the remodeling and modernization of the Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla. OPF-3 will be the manufacturing facility for CST-100, he said.
Boeing expects a CDR in March, which should allow the company to move “full bore” into manufacturing, Elbon said.
Boeing is on track for a pad abort test in February 2017, Elbon said, where the company will test the system allowing astronauts to escape a potentially dangerous situation before launch. Boeing’s orbital flight test, or first uncrewed flight to ISS, will be in April 2017, Elbon said.
Elbon said simulation of CST-100 flight will begin this summer as the company expects delivery of flight simulator software. Elbon said Boieng will have 26 of 34 flight displays operational, creating a “real opportunity” for the crew to interface with the software and understand how the vehicle is going to operate.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company expects its first crewed flight in its Dragon space vehicle in early 2017 following an uncrewed mission to ISS in 2016. SpaceX is currently performing Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) missions to ISS, but Shotwell acknowledged delivering humans to ISS is “clearly different.”
SpaceX also completed its own certification baseline review (CBR) in December and largely completed the build of its pad abort system, Shotwell said. The company, she said, will perform a pad abort system of its own at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in the “next month or so.”
Shotwell said SpaceX expects to perform an inflight abort test later this year to test the highest dynamic regime of the Dragon space capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket. Though she said SpaceX has a few environmental hurdles to get through before it flies the inflight abort test, she expects it to take place.
NASA in September awarded Boeing and SpaceX contracts over Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin to move forward in Commercial Crew and return astronauts to ISS on U.S.-built rockets. NASA awarded Boeing $4.2 billion and SpaceX $2.6 billion. NASA currently relies on Russia to deliver astronauts to ISS.