(music)
(Jim Garvin) Once the satellite is on the launch pad, it's out of our hands. So how do we make
sure it doesn't break or fail to operate properly in the space environment?
Well we test it, we test it, and we test it. One of the biggest things we have to
do is make sure it survives the launch to space. One of the key tests we do is
right here in our acoustic and our vibration chambers. The launch loads of
getting into space are extreme. So we shake it and we bake it. Sometimes these
environments are even much more extreme than even people can handle. We also have
a giant centrifuge. It spins the spacecraft to simulate the forces of
gravity, the G-loading, that the satellite has to successfully encounter. Sometimes
these forces are 30 times those that we experienced here on the surface of Earth.
And finally, we have a thermal vacuum chamber here at Goddard. This is where we
simulate the real environments of space, both in Earth orbit and in deep space.
And those environments go from minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit, that's almost as cold
as Pluto, to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. And satellites sometimes have to go through
those swings in temperature 15 times a day. Sometimes even more. So we test our
satellites, almost until they break, to make sure that when they get into orbit,
or out into deep space, they work just the way we intended.
(music)