Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory

Astronaut Claude Nicollier in the SAIL Shuttle cockpit simulator, 1983

The Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory is a facility at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

It is used to test and verify new software, as well as new avionics, for the Space Shuttle before they are installed and flown.

The testing process is extensive and rigorous; the software on the Shuttle is often considered to be among the most bug-free of operational systems.

The laboratory contains a complete avionics mock-up of a Shuttle, designated OV-095. Whilst only a skeleton of an orbiter, the electronics are identical in position and type to those used on the Shuttle; it is a sufficiently faithful replica that crews sometimes prefer to use it to train on, rather than the training simulators.