The commander of the last space shuttle mission recently returned to space, but never left the ground. No, this is not one of those pesky lateral thinking puzzles . Chris Ferguson , Commander, STS -135 Atlantis in 2011 and currently director of the crew and Mission Operations Boeing was in a virtual flight to the International Space Station (ISS ) in a ground-based simulator as part of the testing requirements for NASA Boeing Crew space Transportation (CST ) -100 spacecraft.
Concept concept of CST -100 ISSX -ray view of the CST -100 CST- 100Artist artist approaches
” Flight ” Ferguson was not just a pleasure trip of videogames. According to Boeing, which was the last milestone before the CST 100 Critical Design Review . In this case, Ferguson drew on his experience as a veteran of three shuttle missions , 40 days in orbit, and 5,700 hours of flying high performance to demonstrate the ability of the spacecraft to operate with a ” pilot in the Loop. ” in other words, a pilot manual controls instead of under automatic guidance.
” Flight ” Ferguson was not just a pleasure trip of videogames. According to Boeing, which was the last milestone before the CST 100 Critical Design Review . In this case, Ferguson drew on his experience as a veteran of three shuttle missions , 40 days in orbit, and 5,700 hours of flying high performance to demonstrate the ability of the spacecraft to operate with a ” pilot in the Loop. ” in other words, a pilot manual controls instead of under automatic guidance.
During the simulated mission , Ferguson led virtual spaceship through a series of maneuvers , including the attitude and translation orbit docking simulator with a virtual ISS , moving away again, and perform a manual re- entry .
“It was great to be back in the driver’s seat , even if I did not go down, ” says Ferguson. “It’s important for spacecraft has manual controls , because even though it is designed to be highly autonomous , the pilot must always be able to back up that autonomy. Manual flight controls provide a kind of belt capacity and braces to pilot the ship. ”
The CST- 100 is one of several spacecraft being developed by private companies for the Commercial Crew Program at NASA as a replacement for the Space Shuttle to transport cargo and crews to the ISS. With a seamless design and a pressure vessel capable of flying up to ten missions before needing to be replaced , the CST- 100 is designed to carry up to seven passengers or a combination of passengers and cargo to the space station.
Boeing says the simulator will be used to train astronauts preliminary until more can be built for training astronauts and mission controllers .
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