NASA Administrator Charles Bolden inspected on February 10, 2016, the airbag system for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, USA, before a contingency water landing test with a full-size spacecraft mock-up.
Although it is designed to land on land, Boeing is testing the Starliner at Langley’s Hydro Impact Basin to evaluate its tendencies in case it has to land in the water in the event of, for example, an unlikely launch or ascent emergency that calls for the spacecraft to separate from its rocket and parachute itself and the astronauts inside to safety.
Starliner is being developed in partnership with NASA to carry up to four astronauts at a time to the International Space Station.
February 12, 2016
