Virgin Orbit Performs Vibration Testing with Crystal Instruments Spider-80X Vibration Control System

On January 17, 2021, Virgin Orbit successfully reached orbit with LauncherOne and deployed 10 CubeSats into Low Earth Orbit for NASA. Prior to the launch, the engineers at Virgin Orbit performed extensive vibration testing using Crystal Instruments

Virgin Orbit, based in Long Beach, California, provides premium launch services for small satellites. The company developed a revolutionary air-launched rocket called LauncherOne, which launches mid-air from a retrofitted Boeing 747.

On January 17, 2021, Virgin Orbit successfully reached orbit with LauncherOne and deployed 10 CubeSats into Low Earth Orbit for NASA. Prior to the launch, the engineers at Virgin Orbit performed extensive vibration testing using Crystal Instruments vibration controllers with hundreds of channels. A Virgin Orbit dynamics engineer confirmed that “the Spider controllers played an important role in our successful launch,”

Virgin Orbit recently purchased additional channels from Crystal Instruments to expand their testing capabilities. Crystal Instruments is privileged to contribute to the rapidly growing small satellite industry with our innovative vibration control technology.

The Crystal Instruments Spider-80X hardware offers broad versatility for environmental test labs. The Spider-80X not only runs the Crystal Instruments EDM (Engineering Data Management) VCS (Vibration Control System) software, but it also runs the entire EDM DSA (Dynamic Signal Analyzer) software suite. This provides users with flexible and enhanced capabilities to quickly switch between tests, resulting in savings of both time and money.

In addition to running multiple software suites, the Spider-80X can also scale up and down for increased channel counts and allows users to simultaneously deploy different tests. The convenient scalability combined with the capability to run multiple test types makes the Spider-80X the ideal data collector and vibration controller for aerospace test labs.

For more information about Crystal Instruments products, please contact info@go-ci.com.

Spider-80Xi (compact version) at Crystal Instruments lab in Charlotte, NC

On January 17, 2021, Virgin Orbit successfully reached orbit with LauncherOne and deployed 10 CubeSats into Low Earth Orbit for NASA. Prior to the launch, the engineers at Virgin Orbit performed extensive vibration testing using Crystal Instruments vibration controllers with hundreds of channels. A Virgin Orbit dynamics engineer confirmed that “the Spider controllers played an important role in our successful launch,”