U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, left, speaks to attendees at the grand opening of The Boeing Company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Chris Ferguson, deputy manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, listens at right. During the event, the company also revealed the new name of its commercial crew transportation spacecraft: the CST-100 Starliner. For 20 years, the facility served as a shuttle processing hangar and main engine shop. With the high bay of the C3PF expected to be complete in December 2015, engineers are building the structural test article for the Starliner in the remodeled engine shop. The test version of the spacecraft will be put through a continuum of tests culminating with a pad abort test in 2017.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett