NASA is developing the Orion spacecraft to carry crews to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and beyond. The Orion capsule will provide deep space travel, earth re-entry, and the capability to conduct regular in‐space operations, including rendezvous docking and extra‐vehicular activity. The first flight of the Orion spacecraft will demonstrate an emergency abort.

Honeywell is responsible for providing the Core Flight Computer for Orion to Lockheed Martin and NASA. The embedded software for the Orion Core Flight Computer is safety-critical and NASA man-rated category A.

Honeywell selected EXB to contribute to the development and testing of the Core Computer Software Configuration Item Flight Software for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Activities EXB performed for the customer included:

• Creating, electronically reviewing, compiling, executing, and delivering thread level requirements-based and structural coverage test cases for all Software Requirements Document (SRD) requirements.
• Resolving issues with the test environment.
• Participating in auditing activities conducted by customers and Honeywell Software Quality Assurance.

EXB performed to Honeywell’s CMMI Level 5 compliant FSW Core Standards and Processes. Project planning, scheduling, and status reporting were provided by EXB, including earned value metrics. For this project, EXB used its automated verification methodology for Requirements‐Based Testing and its TestCompass® toolset. The methodology increased quality and reduced execution time and cost. Test cases and executable test procedures were automatically generated and executed in a fully-integrated test development and execution environment. EXB’s automated test procedure generator was integrated with Honeywell’s proprietary test environment, saving an average of two hours of development time for each test of approximately 450 tests.