the thunder of powerful engines echoing
in the desert air a plume of steam
billowing towards the sky sparks flying
from electrical wires the blast from a
controlled explosion these sights and
sounds belong to one of the world's
finest state-of-the-art facilities for
propulsion and materials testing in the
desert northeast of Las Cruces New
Mexico
NASA's white sands test facility stands
ready to challenge the safety and
reliability of items slated for
spaceflight
the goal at White Sands is to minimize
flight risks safety no matter what is
the first concern from rocket engines to
film for a camera everything flown on a
manned spacecraft has to be tested
carefully controlled test parameters
determine the strengths and weaknesses
in hardware concepts and designs
this testing is crucial to mission
success taking the risk here on earth
first will help avoid having to solve a
problem miles away from home in the
unforgiving space environment as part of
NASA's Johnson Space Center the white
sands test facility is primarily a
support organization the testing
requirements for the Johnson Space
Center are the first priority for this
facility however it also supports other
NASA centers various government agencies
and aerospace related commercial
industries on a reimbursable basis a
client provides the test article and
defines the technical and schedule
requirements white sands personnel
develop and conduct the test program to
satisfy those requirements
NASA's white sands test facility employs
a team of over 700 civil servants and
contractors this self-sufficient
facility includes an administrative area
two propulsion test areas and a
laboratories area the moderate weather
arid climate and remote location make
this an ideal site for propulsion and
hazardous material testing built in 1964
facilities here contest the entire
propulsion system at one time to see how
the components interact while the larger
Saturn 5 engines which would push the
Apollo spacecraft off the launch pad
were tested at another NASA facility the
white sands facility began its
propulsion work with the development and
certification testing of Apollo's
service module and lunar module engines
these engines were crucial to the
success of the Apollo missions the
service module engine put the astronauts
into lunar orbit then the lunar module
descent engine landed them on the moon
the lunar module ascent engine blasted
them off the moon and back into lunar
orbit and the service module engine
brought them back home four dozen tiny
reaction control engines on the lunar
module and command service module
steered the vehicles through space over
the years White Sands has tested more
than three hundred engines in over two
point 1 million firings
each test is conducted to make sure that
the engines are safe and reliable in the
early 1970s white sands began tests for
the shuttles on-orbit propulsion systems
including the orbital maneuvering system
and the reaction control system three
high fidelity flight light test articles
were used for the development and
qualification of these systems recently
these test articles entered a new phase
of testing in order to identify the life
cycle limitations of the shuttle
propulsion systems nASA has developed
the fleet leader test program as part of
this program white sands will
periodically operate the test articles
to see how repeated firings affect the
system these test articles will undergo
more firings and checkouts than any of
the corresponding flight systems as a
result shuttle component problems
resulting from long-term exposure to
corrosive rocket propellants and
multi-mission operation can be resolved
before problems occur on flight vehicles
propulsion testing is conducted in two
separate locations designated 300 and
400 test areas in the 300 test area to
test stands operate at normal or ambient
atmospheric pressure
these stands are hinged to accommodate
rocket systems which must be tested in
both horizontal and vertical
orientations such as the steering
thrusters which control the shuttles
position in orbit a third test chamber
allows rocket engine tests to be
conducted under simulated space vacuum
condition the largest of these tests and
302 was extended to a height of 58 feet
during the Viking Mars Lander program in
the early 1970s at that time it was used
to simulate the physical and biological
effects of a rocket engine landing on
Martian soil this work led to
improvements to the rocket engine and
its fuel prior to the launch of the
Viking probe the stand has since been
modified to accommodate vacuum testing
of space station propulsion systems one
of the largest instant steam generating
systems in the country is located in the
400 test area it can generate over 3/4
of a million horsepower which would
equal the power of over 5,000 automobile
engines
this steam generator closely simulates
the space environment by allowing the
interior of the altitude chambers to
remain in a near vacuum during an engine
firing to create the vacuum the engine
fires into a large specially shaped duct
which vents to the outside inside the
duct our nozzles that inject cooling
water and shoot high-pressure steam in
the same direction as the exhaust is
traveling the steam is accelerated to
supersonic speeds as it is ejected by
the system this creates a low pressure
which has enough suction to pull all the
atmosphere and the Rockets exhaust out
of the info stand as a result the engine
and exhaust plume are kept in a near
vacuum testing under vacuum conditions
is vital because rocket engines perform
significantly better in space than in
tests at atmospheric pressure this
difference in performance must be
measured precisely test stands for o1
and 403 our altitude chambers used for
testing liquid propellant engines a
full-scale shuttle orbital maneuvering
system pod and a flight type orbital
maneuvering engine are installed in test
and fleet leader tests
another specialized vacuum test stand
designated 405 was designed to determine
the performance of the solid rocket
motors typically used to boost
spacecraft into orbits higher than the
shuttle can reach solid rocket motor
testing is difficult because these
motors are often spun as they are fired
a special fixture was set up to spin the
motors at rates up to 125 revolutions
per minute motor pressures temperatures
and thrust outputs are measured to
verify compliance with performance
guidelines this stand can also test
liquid fuel rocket engines such as the
shuttles steering thrusters each test
stand is operated from the
blast-resistant control center
underground tunnels connect the stands
with the control center and protect the
electrical and instrumentation wiring
each test article is instrumented with
hundreds of devices each measure
pressures temperatures vibrations and
flow rates the test procedure is
precisely controlled to allow a
comprehensive analysis of the results
for sets of computers acquire and
process the test data
these computers offer real-time test
control plus digital and color graphic
data displays engineers analyze the data
to determine if the system met
performance objectives following a
firing the propulsion system is
carefully checked out and examined for
damage propulsion testing is more than
just fire and smoke often white sands
personnel must develop procedures were
safely handling toxic or hazardous
propellants in various situations such
as loading propellants onto the shuttle
other work involves continued
development of environmentally safe
systems or destroying toxic fuel waste
products
techniques are also developed for
cleaning and refurbishing shuttle
propellant components which have
accumulated contamination during more
than 10 years of flight operations many
special projects at white sands are
supported by an extensive laboratory
complex the laboratories area has nine
remote tested cells designed for high
pressure testing with gaseous and liquid
oxygen
there are also 14 remote test cells
capable of withstanding explosions and
designed for operation with hazardous
toxic fluids in this area special
equipment is used to examine the
ignition combustion and explosive
properties of typical spacecraft
materials and propellers white sands has
one of the most extensive materials
testing laboratories in the world this
lab characterizes materials on earth so
that they can be depended on in space
over 90% of all the nonmetallic
materials flown during the Apollo Skylab
and shuttle programs have been tested at
white sands currently work focuses on
materials proposed for use on the
shuttle its payloads and space station
among the unique tests conducted here is
the flammability of metals white sands
is a proven leader in this type of
testing and in analyzing how metals burn
recently hypervelocity particle
launchers have been added to white sands
arsenal of tools these light gas guns
propel objects up to one inch in
diameter at speeds of nearly seven
kilometers per second or ten times as
fast as a high-powered rifle this
simulates the impact of meteoroids and
orbital debris on hazardous targets such
as pressurized containers propellant
tanks or other spacecraft components
there is more to the lab area than
testing materials or studying explosions
often parts that have failed on board
the shuttle are analyzed in the
controlled environment of the lab
engineers try to mimic the failures from
that they can identify the specific
problem and work on a solution an other
area of interest is payloads outgassing
or the migration of molecules out of
organic products tests are conducted on
everything from laptop computers to
animal enclosures to film for onboard
cameras to ensure that nothing toxic is
released from materials due to
outgassing also payloads that fly
together are tested to make sure that
one payloads outgassing does not
contaminate other payloads and white
sands clean rooms are used continuously
to precision clean all the parts used in
rocket propellant and liquid oxygen
tests these clean rooms are an integral
part of the test program tests using
rocket fuels cannot be conducted without
precision clean parts if a small bit of
organic material is on the test article
and it is tested in pure oxygen a fire
could result
the clean room not only ensures
uncontaminated test results but more
importantly provides a necessary safety
factor one indispensable and rather
unusual test capability is the odor
panel since 1967 a panel of volunteers
has sniffed literally every item that
has flown in the crew cabins of NASA's
manned spacecraft this is important
because a bad odor permeating an
enclosed cabin can become uncomfortable
and alysus calibration valve disassembly
and assembly metallurgy
x-ray special component-level testing
and photography for all propulsion and
laboratory activities technical support
at white sands doesn't stop with the
completion of the test these engineers
scientists and technicians are
determined to provide the answers to
whatever questions might be posed they
have even compiled several handbooks on
aerospace fluid hazards as well as
provided support for special
investigations and hazard assessments in
addition to providing top-notch test
cells and laboratories the white sands
test facility also supports another
important part of the shuttle program a
dry gypsum lake bed at the nearby US
Army White Sands Missile Range provides
two seven mile long runways for shuttle
landing operations and astronaut
training designated white sands Space
Harbor this area of the Missile Range
serves as an alternate landing site for
the shuttle here
although only one shuttle has landed
here the Space Harbor is used everyday
and often at night as an essential
training ground for shuttle pilots here
astronauts practice approaches and
landings using the shuttle training
aircraft which mimics the shuttles
flight characteristics and
instrumentation in 1989 a third runway
was added to Train astronauts for
transatlantic abort landings this
shorter and narrower runway is almost an
exact duplicate in size and appearance
to the one had been gurira marraco
located near the white sands test
facility is another installation which
provides an important service to the
shuttle program the tracking and data
relay satellite system ground terminals
two terminals are located about four
miles apart each is responsible for
receiving voice television and data from
orbiting shuttles both terminals are
supervised by nasa's goddard space
flight center and are not related to the
white sands test facility
the outstanding track record at white
sands centers around its people they are
involved in all facets of the test from
inception to completion these
professionals have the resources
training and experience necessary to
provide state-of-the-art support for
various test requirements the future
holds many challenges for the white
sands test facility at white sands years
of experience combined with the physical
assets of the facility will continue to
provide the capability to safely
evaluate potential hazards which may
arise on earth and in space whether it
involves firing rocket engines
evaluating advanced materials studying
explosions or testing new exotic
propellants today's work at the white
sands test facility will continue to
minimize risks for tomorrow's space
flights