A boilerplate CST-100 Starliner is lifted skyward by a balloon for a drop test of the Starliner's parachute system. Boeing, which is building the Starliner, conducted the test in White Sands, New Mexico, as part of the testing campaign for certification by NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Photo credit: Boeing

The parachute deployment is seen from the top hatch of a boilerplate CST-100 Starliner during a drop test of the Starliner's parachute system. Boeing, which is building the Starliner, conducted the test in White Sands, New Mexico, as part of the testing campaign for certification by NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Photo credit: Boeing

Engineers (from left) Ayrton Jordan, Anthony Milana and Edgar Reyes from the NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) in Las Cruces, N.M. qualify an interior surface pressure vessel crack inspection using the eddy current nondestructive testing technique to find flaws smaller than more common and less capable penetrant testing methods. Detecting cracks smaller than the eye can detect is an important feature as manufacturers push performance limits to achieve lighter, more efficient spacecraft. Photo Credit: (NASA/Reed P. Elliott)

Engineers Ayrton Jordan (left) and Anthony Milana (right) at the NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) in Las Cruces, N.M. install a metallic liner into the multipurpose pressure vessel scanner that could one day become part of a composite overwrapped pressure vessel. A slotted ball joint at the base of the rotary stage allows the tank to pivot resulting in helical scans that are more reliable when measuring interior and exterior 3D surface profiles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Reed P. Elliott)

Edgar Reyes, a materials engineer and recent graduate of The University of Texas at El Paso, visually inspects a crack identified on the outer surface of a composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) following an internal eddy-current through-wall nondestructive inspection conducted at the NASA White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M. Eddy-current testing is one of many electromagnetic testing methods used in nondestructive testing to identify cracks in COPVS that can potentially threaten spacecraft crew and mission success. Photo Credit: (NASA/Reed P. Elliott)