Spaceflight Environments & Testing

Acoustics

JSC has a wide range of capabilities in audio system design, analysis, testing, and evaluation and is a recognized leader in the field of spacecraft acoustics.

Aerosciences

In support of JSC’s human spaceflight mission, the Center provides cutting-edge expertise and advanced simulation tools to characterize environments, including aerodynamic characterization, aerothermodynamic heating, rarefied gas dynamics, and decelerator (parachute) systems.

Dust

JSC boasts a comprehensive suite of capabilities for dust testing, including unique assets to accommodate a wide range of hardware, as well as providing expertise in testing with regolith simulant and other unique requirements.

EMI/EMC

JSC houses essential facilities and expertise to facilitate EMI/EMC engineering development, simulation, evaluation, and certification testing for crew, flight, and ground support equipment.

Lighting

JSC’s lighting team plays a vital role in ensuring the safety and functionality of current vehicles (International Space Station, Commercial Crew, Cargo and Orion) as well as future space vehicles. We provide internal and external lighting requirements verification, lamp and system lighting design, modeling and precise test and measurement of lighting and camera systems, as well as the simulation of orbital and planetary surface lighting environments. 

Microbiology

From technology development to integrated testing of human-system interfaces, human performance, system concepts, and mission operations, JSC provides unique microbiology expertise to ensure environmental standards and crew health and safety are achieved for human spaceflight.

Orbital Debris

JSC experts ensure the safety and sustainability of activities in Earth’s orbit by characterizing the orbital debris environment, testing for impact effects, and developing shielding technology.

Ovens & Freezers

JSC provides capabilities to handle unique needs for temperature extremes. The Cold Stowage team offers controlled environments to meet precise temperature requirements during ascent, on-orbit operations, and return of payloads and science experiments, enabling unique ISS science and research. Additionally, JSC provides access to advanced thermal chambers, including autoclaves and ovens.

Pressure

Typical uses of our vacuum chambers have included development, engineering evaluation, and qualification testing of spacecraft components, subassemblies, and vehicles; preflight thermal-vacuum conditioning of flight hardware; development and calibration of instruments for use in the large chambers or in-flight; spacecraft seal studies; photographic film emulsion studies; and optical surface contamination studies.

Radiation

JSC’s physics, simulation and radiobiology tools allow experts to perform vehicle design and complex shielding assessments in different environments, develop shelter/shielding methods and optimization as well as predict and assess the biological effects of space radiation exposures.

Thermal Vacuum

JSC thermal-vacuum test facilities provide thermal-vacuum chamber test operations for both crewed and uncrewed test environments. The facilities offer a wide range of performance capability, which can be matched to the individual test requirements of smaller test articles or large test article components and subsystems.

Toxicology

JSC’s uniquely skilled team serves as the NASA-wide resource for space toxicology by assessing chemical toxicity to establish spacecraft maximum allowable concentrations (SMACs), spacecraft water exposure guidelines (SWEGs), assigning toxicity hazard levels to all compounds that could enter the habitable area of a spacecraft, performing offgas testing of flight hardware and whole modules, and monitoring and analyzing air quality in human space vehicles.

Vibration & Shock

JSC’s Structures Test Facility can provide structural vibration and shock testing of spaceflight hardware to ensure structural integrity and functionality of spacecraft components to guarantee mission success.