This news is classified in: Aerospace Engines / Power / Fuel Space
Aug 1, 2022
Our next Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle is closer to launch!
Our chemical propulsion OTV, Sherpa-LTC, which will fly on an upcoming Starlink mission, recently underwent rigorous vibration testing at NTS’s Santa Clarita facility.
Happy to report, Sherpa-LTC2 has now been validated for flight loads.
Forecasts by Technique (Asteroid Mining, Lunar Mining, Planetary Mining), by Resource Extraction (Liquid Extraction, Precious Metals Extraction, Rare Earth Elements Extraction, Other), by Infrastructure (Drilling Rigs and Excavators, Payload Handling Systems, Autonomous Mining Vehicles, Ore Processing Plants, Orbital Storage Depots, Interplanetary Transport Vessels) AND Regional and Leading National Market Analysis PLUS Analysis of Leading Companies AND COVID-19 Impact and Recovery Pattern Analysis
Download free sample pagesWorking together with Astro Digital, the Spaceflight engineering team designed a test configuration that exposed the spacecraft and customer payload to the vibration environment it would expect to see during launch. Once assembled, we shipped the hardware to California where it was off loaded and mounted to the vibration test fixture.
Once the structure was on the table it was instrumented with a series of accelerometers and put through different vibration profiles to simulate the components of a launch environment. We confirmed all target inputs were achieved and verified that the hardware sustained no damage, both through visual inspection and data review.
Next, the Benchmark Space Systems’ Polaris propulsion subsystem successfully underwent environmental tests and integrated hotfire testing with the Command and Control System. Subsequently the team completed our Integration Readiness Review.