Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
NARRATOR: America's next generation of human-rated spacecraft is being designed to be flown from
launch through landing... by computers!. Complex maneuvers including rendezvous and docking
will be automated and precise to a level not capable with earlier machines.
But that doesn't mean the spacecraft won't need a pilot to take control should there
be a problem.
CHRIS FERGUSON: It's designed to be largely autonomous but the pilot will always be there to
back up the autonomy in the event something unexpected happens.
So we always have the ability to take over from the vehicle and execute something whether
it be a docking or a re-entry.
NARRATOR: Boeing Space Exploration, one of several companies working with
NASA's Commercial Crew Program to develop a new American spacecraft capable of carrying
people to low-Earth orbit, recently showed that a pilot safely can assume control
of the CST-100 in almost any circumstance.
Working in a simulator at the company's Houston office,
Ferguson, a former NASA space shuttle commander, demonstrated what flying the CST-100
will look like with a person sitting in for the computers at the controls.
FERGUSON: This is the first opportunity that we have that we can show we have a vehicle
that can fly. We've used actual flight software,
we've used our model displays and our
real jet models to show that we
have a vehicle that can stay under control, can dock with the International Space Station
and fly a re-entry.
NARRATOR: The test's significant accomplishments underscored two years' worth of work by
the simulator and flight software development team.
Lynna WOOD: It's very exciting for us, it's a very exciting day.
It's been a long journey where we've learned a lot. A lot of lessons learned, a lot of
exciting progress was
made. We did start this about a year ago when we started writing the requirements for our
partner who
built the simulator as well as starting to put the pieces together, see the switches
go in, the displays together. The team has just done a fantastic job pulling this together.
NARRATOR: The demonstration a milestone under Boeing's Commercial Crew Integrated Capabilities
agreement with NASA.
The simulator will next see increasingly demanding conditions as it's connected with
NASA's Mission Control Center at nearby Johnson Space Center for mission simulations that
include flight controllers and malfunction conditions.
The CST-100 design will undergo a series of reviews this spring that will take the plans
for the capsule-
shaped spacecraft, its systems and subsystems, and complex software operating system to a
point just short of production.