Celestial Air-Bearing Test 1

this is the celestial air-bearing, weighing in at approximately 1200lbs. the attitude control systems for a mission are mounted at one side, and ballast on the other. high pressure air levitates the central ball allowing the payload to move freely. you can actually move it quite easily with one finger.

pressurized nitrogen gas provides the oomph for several thrusters. during testing, the lights are killed and the thrusters point the rocket according to flight requirements. often a columnator and fiber optics cables are used to mimic star constellations onto which the rocket's ACS systems attempt to lock.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• air-bearing
• wallops
• nasa
• rocket

[estebanmussi]

hey astrojam, what is that for??

[astrojams1]

some university was running an experiment to examine the brightness of stars... or something. they launched their experiment on a rocket from the NASA wallops flight facility in virginia. cool stuff.

[tallhunter1]

Nice