We're delighted to say that Durham Tech's Competitive Sub-Orbital Unmanned Spaceflight team -- 'the Unacceptable Risks' -- has passed its Critical Design Review (CDR). Our presentation to NASA's partner organization, NC SpaceGrant, was very well-received and we passed with flying colors. CDRs are rigorous examinations of the team's pre-production and early development efforts; they confirm that we're on-target to meet all project parameters and to deliver on the expected results. In it, we spoke about our innovative hull design, our extensive electronics investigations, our software production timeline, and the aggressive testing schedule before us. Getting the green light for continued development is a marvelous capstone for our concerted efforts thus far. This hurdle is the most crucial pre-launch gate; most engineering projects which fail do so at the CDR.
Looking forward, the CSOUS team is planning on a lower-altitude launch for a full systems check in late January or early February. While we won't be reaching the edge of space until our main launch in April, this practice run should be an excellent test for success and a unique chance to practice pre-launch tasks, in-flight tracking, and ground recovery of our payload. Expect more updates as events unfold!
