Boeing CST-100 Starliner Rescue Practice

Rescue team members are using a Boeing CST-100 Starliner training capsule, known as Boiler Plate 3, to practice uprighting procedures in the unlikely event of an emergency resulting in a splashdown.

NASA and the Department of Defense Human Space Flight Support Office Rescue Division conducted a search and rescue training exercise at the Army Wharf at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 17, 2019. The manual uprighting airbags could be used to lift the spacecraft to its upright position. This is the first at-sea exercise with the Starliner training capsule ahead of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test with astronauts targeted for later this year.

During normal return scenarios, Boeing’s Starliner will land on land in a safe zone of about 15 square miles in the Western United States. Throughout the commercial crew development phases with NASA, Boeing has performed dozens of qualification tests on its parachute and airbag systems simulating conditions on land and in the water.

KSC-20190417-PH_KLS01_0132 Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett Larger image