Pre-launch simulation involved development of a software spacecraft simulator to be used as a tool for network tests, training of spacecraft operation personnel and validating the spacecraft health monitoring software.
Especially after the near-disaster of Apollo 13, NASA could count itself lucky that Congress and the White House agreed in 1972 to finance development of a new spacecraft.
As STEP matures into a flight program, the development of a precise spacecraft dynamics simulator becomes crucial.
One of the primary mission risks tracked in the development of all spacecraft is that due to micro-meteoroids and orbital debris (MMOD).
Pending the development of a new U.S. manned spacecraft, Soyuz is the only spacecraft other than China's Shenzhou (which is based on Soyuz) that flies astronauts into space.
The fleet will be grounded to make way for the development of a new generation of spacecraft capable of taking people back to the Moon and beyond, which should be flying by 2015.
The new NASA funds are to pay for the development of new spacecraft to NASA's specifications, though NASA will not take a stake in any of the three companies.
Plasma physics has found an increasing range of practical industrial applications, including the development of electric spacecraft propulsion systems.
Like development of the spacecraft, construction of the 110,152 square-foot (10,233 square-metre) terminal and hangar facility has been complicated.
