NASA is advancing humanity’s ability to explore deep space, building a new Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion capsule to carry astronauts beyond Earth orbit.
This next-generation platform aims to enable future missions to the Moon, asteroids, Mars, and beyond. However, verifying the safety and reliability of such a powerful launch vehicle before a single crew member flies requires an advanced and highly dependable Developmental Flight Instrumentation (DFI) system. The SLS plans to be the most powerful launcher ever built. At the same time, the Orion spacecraft will be able to carry astronauts to explore the moon, asteroids, and Mars, as well as ferry crew and supplies to the International Space Station.
Space launches are extraordinarily expensive, and traditional custom-built flight instrumentation adds even more cost and complexity. For NASA, the DFI system needed to gather massive volumes of mission-critical performance data - without failure - under extreme vibration, temperature, shock, and radiation conditions. It also had to accommodate design changes late in development. The goal: deliver uncompromised test data while staying within a tight budget and schedule.
