of at least five to fly. The vehicle will launch from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, just a few miles from its
processing facility, and will cruise autonomously on a
six to eight hour trip to the $100 billion orbiting ISS. The
astronauts will not need to fly the vehicle themselves at
all, and will literally be along for the ride in all aspects
of the flight. They will, however, be able to take manual
control of the CST-100 at any time, just in case.
“We have a basic level of training we provide that will
give the operator, a pilot, the knowledge that they need
to operate the spaceship, which is mostly autonomous,”
added Ferguson. “They will have the ability to get to the
ISS and back, as well as the ability to deal with failures
and the ability to take manual control if necessary. NASA
wants a single piloted vehicle, so we will train the pilot
to whatever level of proficiency they need, and if
NASA wants us to
train someone else
to a pilot level of
proficiency then we
will be happy to do
that. That being said
we have factored into
our design the ability
for a copilot, and
train them perhaps
to the same level of
proficiency as the
pilot. They would sit
beside the pilot and
do all of those types
of crew resource
management (CRM)
types of things that
NASA instilled in us
shuttle astronauts
over the years.”
“When astronauts
go up in the CST-100
their primary mission is not to fly the spacecraft, their
primary mission is to go to the space station for 6 months,
so we don’t want to burden them with an inordinate
amount of training to fly our vehicle,” added Ferguson.
The spacecraft interior is much more user-friendly than
vehicles that came before, no more hundreds (if not
thousands) of switches on nearly every wall; CST-100’s
control panel spans not more than three feet wide. Its
look and feel is very user-focused, featuring therapeutic
Boeing LED Sky Lighting technology similar to that found
in the company’s 787 Dreamliner. A blue hue creates
a sky effect and makes the capsule appear and feel
roomier, something any astronaut will agree is always
desired (spaceflight is not for the claustrophobic).
The interior also boasts tablet technology for crew
interfaces, which completely eliminates any need
for bulky manuals, while wireless internet will support
communications and ISS docking operations.
“One of the great things with the technology we
have at Boeing is the ability to rapid prototype the
interior, and as designs get updated we’re able to
74
74
bring in new design concepts,” said Castilleja while
we sat together onboard his CST-100 mock up last
June at Boeing’s CST-100 processing facility at KSC.
“We get the engineers in here and get the astronauts
in here every six months to provide that reach and
visibility. Do they feel comfortable? Is there anything
we need to tweak as we move forward? It really
builds trust with them. It’s almost like buying a car, but
you’re a part of the design process in that vehicle.”
“We brought our commercial airliner feel into
the CST-100, and so you see this merging … it’s
almost like history repeating itself, from commercial
airlines to commercial spaceflight,” added
Castilleja. “We’re bringing that Boeing element into
spaceflight and wanted to create an interior that
makes the spacecraft feel a little bit bigger.”
An artist’s rendering
of the processing facility
for the Boeing CST-100
being constructed at
Kennedy Space Center.
Credit: Boeing
Now that Boeing has secured their award with NASA,
operations will immediately move to the Kennedy Space
Center (KSC) to manufacture, assemble, and test the
actual CST-100 flight articles. Boeing, in partnership
with Space Florida, is already leasing the former
space shuttle Orbiter Processing Facility Bay-3 at KSC
to do this, modernizing the facility (now known as the
Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or
C3PF for short) to provide an environment for efficient
production, testing, and operations for the CST-100
similar to Boeing’s satellite, space launch vehicle,
and commercial airplane production programs.
“We’re transitioning this facility into a world class
manufacturing facility,” said Mulholland. “With a
50,000 square foot processing facility it’s going to
allow us to process up to six CST-100’s at a time.”
The hangar facility has more than enough room to
support processing of multiple CST-100s simultaneously,
and the adjoining sections of the building are well-suited
to process other systems such as engines and thrusters
before they are integrated into the main spacecraft.
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