In parallel, a qualification unit motor was built and subjected to motor-level qualification testing. The  qualification motor passed all qualification tests and performed as expected. Finally, to fully close out the  CSADA qualification program, the first production CSADA with the new motor design was subjected to  proto-qualification. The proto-qualification CSADA met all test requirements, and the remaining three flight  CSADAs built to date successfully completed unit acceptance testing.  Conclusions & Recommendations  Conclusion  The issues encountered during CSADA qualification testing are good examples of the challenge of taking  on responsibility for a qualification program just before the start of qualification testing. Unfortunately, taking  on such tasks is unavoidable, and there is often not sufficient budget or schedule to fully scrub every detail  of the design, analyses, test plan, and derivation of test requirements. In the case of the CSADA, the most  serious design issues identified were addressed before start of qualification, but a decision was made to  proceed with some level or risk, a decision that was made based on a flawed stability model. The available  in-house test equipment (MIPS table) has limited tuning capability, so although great effort was taken to  minimize the level of over-test, this was not sufficient to eliminate the risk of a shock test failure. Therefore,  an obvious recommendation is to ensure the qualification shock test method for slip ring is validated using  engineering hardware early in the development, and utilize a shock input method that more closely matches  the flight shock environment, as detailed in this paper.   In the case of the stepper motor issue, the poor detent characteristics were flagged as a risk to the program.  With the heritage stability model showing stable operation, the decision was made with the program to  press forward, and the motor ended up losing stability during TVAC testing. It is common in this industry to  have an expert analyst performing analysis in support of design engineering, but ultimately, the responsible  engineer, being most familiar with the configuration of the hardware, should go through analysis models in  detail before the analysis is closed. In this case, the responsible engineer audited the stability model after  the motor lost stability, and the model was found to be inadequate. The model issue could have been found  much sooner in the flow by validating the model against BEMF voltage plots taken during baseline functional  testing. Comparing predicted to actual BEMF plots would have unearthed the modelling issue sooner.   Recommendations  The issues discussed in this paper may be lessons learned to some, and to others they may simply reinforce  good system and test design practice. The following recommendations are made based on the issues  encountered during CSADA qualification.  •When performing shock tests on slip rings, care should be taken to avoid an excessive shock pulse duration, excessive displacement, and over-exposure in the lower frequency range. •If shock testing cannot be deferred to the vehicle level, use an EDU or prototype to validate the shock test, paying particular attention to shock pulse duration and displacement. •Design and implement a good shock test setup: oEnsure the method used provides a flight-like shock pulse duration and can be shaped to closely match the flight shock environment. Different shock scenarios will require different test setups. oReview the entire series of events to result in the simulation of the shock to verify suitable capability and address challenges. oThe required force levels to achieve the shock must be within the excitation system’s range. oReview desired shape of the excitation pulse into the test fixture and make initial assessments about how to best approximate it. oAssess the effects of fixture modes for how they can be used to help shape the shock environment and their effects mitigated when not beneficial to achieving the desired SRS. For certain environments, it is highly beneficial to introduce fixture modes at certain frequencies. Similarly, having methods to introduce damping into fixture modes is often beneficial in NASA/CP—2018-219887 305