We have a process during the assembly of the spacecraft called Assembly Test and Launch Operations (ATLO).
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Before leaving the space station, the Progress 47 spacecraft conducted a test of an upgraded docking system that Russia intends to use on future unmanned Progress and manned Soyuz vehicles.
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Within the next few weeks, the Federal Aviation Administration will issue its regulations surrounding the "experimental permits" that private spacecraft owners will use to test their rockets.
There has been one hiccup: In August, an unmanned spacecraft veered out of control during a test flight and had to be destroyed.
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The scheduled trip comes just a little over four months after the project successfully completed a docking test by the unmanned private spacecraft with the International Space Station.
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The government will not certify spacecraft, nor will passengers be allowed on test flights.
Developers of private spacecraft can already obtain a license from the FAA to test their rockets, but the process for obtaining such a permit is lengthy and complicated.
There is talk of a test flight to the ISS, using its Cygnus spacecraft, sometime next year.
Applicants for experimental permits will need to provide a description of their program, a flight test plan, documentation showing the operational safety of the spacecraft and a plan for response in case of a mishap.
Next week, they will order the spacecraft to unfold the telescope's 33-foot-long camera mast and test its array of 133 mirrors, then begin actual operations 23 days later.
Conveniently, more modern spacecraft than the Pioneers include separate range-finding hardware, which can be used to test the accuracy of the Doppler method.
Although spacecraft instruments are set to return photographs and compositional data, the encounter primarily is a test of Deep Space 1's autonomous navigation system, the last of 12 technologies the mission was designed to pioneer.
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is led by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, and is designed to demonstrate reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth.
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