Brenda Marie Rivers
Northrop Grumman has finished acoustic and sine vibration tests on the spacecraft element of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope at a company facility in Redondo Beach, Calif.
The company said Friday it facilitated testing operations to prepare the SCE platform for high-decibel noises during launch.
Tests involved latching the SCE onto an electrodynamic shaker and simulating a rocket launch by subjecting the platform to 140.7 decibles of noise and increasing subsonic frequencies from 5 hertz to protoflight vibration levels.
The company also assessed the structure’s ability to withstand high noise levels, turbulent air flow and heightened vibration and shaking in transit to space.
“Successful environmental testing of the SCE builds further confidence in its structural design integrity, built to withstand the stresses of launch,†said Scott Willoughby, a vice president and JWST program manager at Northrop.
The SCE will undergo thermal vacuum testing, or its final environmental assesment phase, ahead of full deployment and integration with the Optical Telescope Element/Integrated Science Instrument Module this year.
