Boeing’s Commercial Crew Space Transportation System, including the CST-100 capsule, Atlas V launcher, and ground system successfully completed its Preliminary Design Review on March 12. (Press release here.)

The PDR included representatives from Boeing, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and independent consultants. Boeing has scheduled additional tests to be performed in 2012, including a launch abort engine hot fire test series, which was successfully completed on March 9, parachute drop tests in April, a landing air bag test series in May, a forward heat shield jettison test in June, and an attitude control engine hot fire test in June, to gather additional data on key functional elements of the spacecraft design.

The Boeing Commercial Crew Space Transportation System is designed to provide crewed flights to the ISS and a future Bigelow Aerospace orbital space station. The following video shows how the system might support a Bigelow station.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAqYQS6ufWc&w=700]

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