Structural Health Monitoring for Commercial Space Vehicles

A significant step in addressing the safety of commercial space vehicles is the development and testing of a flight information recorder or “black box”. It is envisioned that Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) would be an integral part of the “black box” and would record information on structural integrity during all stages of spaceflight. Consideration of SHM data is useful in pre-flight diagnostics, in-orbit operation and tuning, and in analysis of structural behavior (or disintegration) during spacecraft reentry. SHM information would also play a prominent role in space vehicle re-certification for the next flight.