Our calibration team supports mission critical testing for the International Space Station and other NASA space exploration efforts, and helps to safeguard the lives and equipment used in these high risk endeavors.
Calibration is a critical step for all instrumentation used in our testing and ensures that the data received from calibrated instruments is converted into meaningful and accurate measurements.
To minimize measurement uncertainty, our calibration processes are performed in an environmentally-controlled laboratory with regulated temperature and humidity when needed and our standards are traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards.
Our Materials flight acceptance workforce performs NASA Technical Standard “Flammability, Offgassing, and Compatibility Requirements and Test Procedures”, NASA-STD-6001 and related customized testing designed to verify space flight materials and system performance with a focus on ensuring safety during manned space flights.
We always work with our customers to identify their root concern, making sure they get the data they want and the tests they need.
Since the inception of the technology in the 1970s, White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) has been at the forefront of NASA’s testing and evaluation of composite pressure components, building on unique strengths in Oxygen Systems, Propellants and Aerospace Fluids, Hypervelocity Impact Testing, and Materials Flight Acceptance testing.
Our team of experts continues to lead the way by studying damage tolerance and stress rupture while developing life extension protocols for NASA, industry partners, the Air Force, and government agencies.
WSTF technical advancements in composites are shared through dozens of test standards distributed by ANSI/AIAA, ASTM International, and research reports published for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center and NASA NDE Development Program.
The safety and performance of hazardous propellant systems is a main focus at White Sands Test Facility. Our workforce conducts laboratory micro-analysis to full-scale field explosion tests. With the expertise we have developed, we provide training to the aerospace industry in the safe handling of various propellants. We also provide analysis of systems and operational safety, propellant spec analysis, personal protective equipment assessment, and detection technologies for both industrial and flight applications for our propulsion testing team and end users in aerospace and industry.
Research, Maintenance Keep Crew Busy Ahead of Spacewalks
Astronauts (from left) Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara pose for a portrait in front of the Cold Atom Lab. The physics research device observes the quantum behavior of atoms chilled to near absolute zero.
International Space Station managers have rescheduled a pair of spacewalks as they continue to review data from a backup radiator leak that has since ceased. In the meantime, the Expedition 70 crew members had a busy day at the end of the week packed with space research, cargo operations, and more spacewalk preparations.
The next U.S. spacewalk at the orbiting laboratory will take place at 8:35 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 19. Astronauts Loral O’Hara from NASA and Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency) will spend about six-and-a-half hours swabbing station surfaces to collect potential samples of microbes that might survive in the extreme environment of outer space. NASA TV will begin its spacewalk coverage at 7 a.m. on the agency’s app and website.
A second U.S. spacewalk with O’Hara and NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli has been targeted for Oct. 30. The NASA duo will spend about six-and-a-half hours in the vacuum of space removing faulty radio communications gear and installing new solar array hardware.
The trio along with Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) took a pause from their spacewalk activities on Friday. The astronauts refocused their attention on human research and botany while also keeping up electronics and life support maintenance.
O’Hara took a robotics test and provided biological samples for an experiment to understand the psychological and physiological changes an astronaut experiences while living in weightlessness. Furukawa checked carbon dioxide bottles and hoses that support the growth environment inside the Advanced Plant Habitat botany research facility.
Moghbeli began her day transferring cargo in and out of the Cygnus space freighter. She then cleaned the Human Research Facility’s centrifuge chamber before servicing a variety of computers throughout the orbital lab. Mogensen spent Friday collecting water samples for ground analysis from life support systems in the space station’s U.S. segment.
Two Roscosmos cosmonauts are stepping up their preparations for a spacewalk planned to begin at 4:20 p.m. on Oct. 25. Five-time lab resident Oleg Kononenko and first-time space flyer Nikolai Chub will exit the Poisk airlock in their Orlan spacesuits to install new hardware and deploy a nanosatellite. The pair ended the week studying their spacewalk procedures and testing support hardware.
Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov began Friday training to maneuver the European robotic arm attached to the Nauka science module. Afterward, Borisov opened panels inside Nauka and photographed internal hardware configurations in anticipation of future experiments.
