WASHINGTON — Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions will finish developing and deliver a key flight data handling system for Boeing’s CST-100 commercial astronaut taxi under a contract modification announced by the Ashburn, Virginia, company March 31.
The contract modification, financial terms of which were not disclosed, calls for Curtiss-Wright to complete development, qualification and certification of the Remote Analog Interface Unit and deliver the first flight models to Boeing Space Exploration of Houston.
The avionics system will gather CST-100 sensor data that are used by onboard computers to make flight decisions, Curtiss-Wright said.
Curtiss-Wright began work on the avionics system in 2013 under a preliminary contract, completing a critical design review in June 2014.
Boeing is developing the CST-100 under NASA’s commercial crew program, which is funding development of privately owned vehicles to ferry crews to and from the International Space Station. The first astronaut-carrying CST-100 flights are slated to begin in 2017.
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