The race to replace the space shuttle continues as Boeing is wrapping up wind tunnel testing on its crew transportation vehicle. The aerospace giant is building the CST-100, a capsule that will be launched atop an Atlas V rocket with room for up to seven astronauts. Boeing is one of several private companies vying for NASA contracts to transport cargo and passengers to the International Space Station as well as other future missions for the space agency and private companies.
Boeing has been testing a model of the CST-100 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California since the middle of September. The 12 inch diameter aluminum wind tunnel model is about 1/14 scale and is heavily instrumented to provide detailed data for engineers during the high speed wind tunnel testing.
The model is being positioned in several different attitudes to simulate the aerodynamics that could be experienced during an aborted landing according to Boeing. The engineers want to ensure the design is structurally sound and the vehicle can be controlled during various phases of flight.
The real CST-100 capsule is expected to be tested with the Atlas V rocket beginning in 2015.
Boeing is one of several companies chosen by NASA for the commercial crew development program. Space Exploration continues work on its Dragon capsule which is expected to perform an unmanned docking with the ISS early next year. Blue Origin which recently suffered a setback when a launch ended with the loss of a spacecraft in an explosion, and Sierra Nevada Corporation are the other companies working on the CCDev program.
More photos after the jump.
Images: Boeing
