Protoflight is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsprototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

" and "flight hardware". As defined by NASA Technical Standard NASA-STD-7002A, it refers to a strategy where no test-dedicated qualification article exists and all production (flight) hardware is intended for flight. An example of a program using protoflight methods is the

Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter 260px, MOLA topographic images of the two hemispheres of Mars. This image appeared on the cover of ''Science'' magazine in May 1999. The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) was one of five instruments on the ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) spacecraf ...

project. A protoflight approach carries a higher technical risk approach compared to a full qualification test program since it has no demonstrated life capability over the anticipated life cycle of the hardware, but is a technology development design process that utilizes higher risk tolerances,

agile management Agile management is the application of the principles of Agile software development and Lean Management to various management processes, particularly product development and project management. Following the appearance of the Manifesto for Agile ...

practices, and quick responsiveness that are needed for certain prototype flight projects or missions.Protoflight Solutions
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Examples

Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator The Advanced Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) was a European Space Agency (ESA) suborbital reentry vehicle. It was developed and operated for experimental purposes, specifically to validate the multiple reentry technologies integrated upon it and the ve ...

References

{{reflist Aerospace