Test article (aerospace)

Test articles are built to the specifications necessary to replicate particular conditions and behaviors that are to be validated.

Some test articles are theoretically able to be modified and upgraded to flight-ready status.

Of the 136 Space Shuttle external fuel tanks produced, one was retained as a test article.

[2] Museums may refurbish test articles to match more modern configurations.

This was completed on the Hubble Space Telescope Structural Dynamic Test Vehicle on display at the National Air and Space Museum where this 1976 version of the vehicle was removed from display and upgraded in 1996 by the Smithsonian, Lockheed, and NASA to incorporate changes made on the on-mission version of the Hubble Space Telescope over several servicing missions.