Notes on integration, testing, and remote ops in aerospace.

Dan Zaidenband·3 min read

Integration testing is the worst place to find an integration bug

By integration, the bug is already expensive. How to push interface defects left — into modeling and SIL — before hardware shows up.

Start Testing Before Hardware: A Practical SIL Plan for Integration Teams

A step-by-step SIL plan you can run before the first board arrives — what to stub, what to model, and which interfaces to lock down first.

Dan Zaidenband·5 min read

The 5 Types of ICD Ambiguity That Create Late Defects (and How to Catch Them Early)

The five recurring ICD ambiguity patterns that surface as integration defects — with concrete examples and how to flag each one at review time.

Dan Zaidenband·5 min read

Integration & Testing

How to build integration tests that catch real bugs before hardware shows up.

See all articles →

Your Integration Schedule Is a Confession About Your Simulation

The Saturn V flew whole on its first launch. Why your integration campaign is long, and what would shorten it.

Correct Interfaces Do Not Make a Correct System

Every interface can meet its spec and the system still fails. Why compositional bugs escape ICDs, and how whole-system SIL catches them.

Simulate the Model Your Vendor Won't Show You

Your vendor won't share their model, and they are right not to. Ship an executable black box instead.

Your Integration Schedule Is a Confession About Your Simulation

The Saturn V flew whole on its first launch. Why your integration campaign is long, and what would shorten it.

Correct Interfaces Do Not Make a Correct System

Every interface can meet its spec and the system still fails. Why compositional bugs escape ICDs, and how whole-system SIL catches them.

Interface Control (ICDs)

Authoring, reviewing, and generating ICDs that don't drift.

→

Dan Zaidenband·8 min read

Every TBD in Your ICD Has Already Been Filled In

Every TBD in your ICD already has a value. Someone downstream picked it months ago, and your vendor picked a different one.

Your EGSE Is the First Component to Read Your ICD

Your checkout rack implements your ICD before anyone else does, and for the whole AIT campaign its reading wins.

Dan Zaidenband·7 min read

Your Launch Provider Wrote the Only ICD That Works

The payload user's guide is the one interface on your program nobody negotiates. That is exactly why it holds.

Lessons from Missions

Post-mortems and case studies from the missions that shipped — and the ones that didn't.

See all articles →

Changing a Shared Interface Without Breaking Downstream

Putting the interface in one schema is the easy half. Changing it mid-program without breaking the vendor downstream is the hard half.

Schiaparelli's tests passed. The mission failed anyway

ESA's lander hit Mars at 300 km/h with green test reports behind it. A look at how passing tests can still miss the failure mode that matters.

Industry Perspectives

How the space industry actually works — and where it's broken.

See all articles →

Dan Zaidenband·3 min read

"We tested it" isn't an answer at CDR

At Critical Design Review, "we ran the tests" doesn't prove integration readiness. Here's what reviewers should ask instead — and what teams should bring.

What space vendors should ship instead of source code

Source code drops are the wrong deliverable. What primes actually need from suppliers: executable interface models, conformance tests, and traceable behavior.