On December 25, the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope successfully launched from French Guiana, giving scientists and engineers around the world an exciting Christmas present. The telescope is an international collaboration involving NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. It will continue and expand on the ground-breaking discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in 1990.
According to NASA, “Thousands of engineers and hundreds of scientists worked to make Webb a reality, along with over 300 universities, organizations, and companies from 29 U.S. states and 14 countries.”
Equilibar is proud to be among them.
In 2017, David Reed, Equilibar’s vice president of operations, designed a pressure control system to deliver nitrogen gas to NASA’s acoustic testing chamber at the Goddard Space Center in Maryland. Because the James Webb has to withstand enormous acoustic vibrations from the sound of the blast off, the system designers needed a test to simulate the extreme sound intensity. The system’s complex parameters meant that few experts in the pressure control industry were up to the challenge.
“We are honored that NASA asked David to use his expertise for this important project” said Equilibar president Jeff Jennings. “We are excited to finally watch the launch over the holidays. It ends 2021 on a hopeful note.”
The launch is one of many exciting moments Equilibar experienced in 2021. Others include:
- Joining the Richards Industrials group of fluid control companies in May, enabling increased product synergy and expanded visibility to introduce our technology to an increased number of important projects.
- Being named on the 2021 Federal Laboratory Consortium Technology Transfer Award for work on an alternative ventilator design.
- Being issued a new patent, introducing new product, and expanding our excellent team.
View an exciting overview of the acoustic testing project on this YouTube video.
As always, please feel free to contact one of our application experts about your complex pressure control challenge.
We can’t wait to work on more exciting projects in 2022!
