James Webb Launch Caps Exciting Year for Equilibar

Photo credit: courtesy of Equilibar

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.”

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.”

Equilibar was acquired by Richards Industrials (a VMA member) in May 2021. Click here for more information.