Aerospace & Defense Technology - August 2022 - 38

Tech Briefs
Meets Safe Life
Requirements?
Yes
No
Structural qualification
test to UF × Limit Load ×
EFC × ELCF, Table 4-3
Pressurized Components
without Safe-Life
Proof test flight article
to PF × Limit Load ×
EFC × ELCF, Table 4-3
Pressurized Components
without Safe-Life
Option 1
No
Proof test flight
article
to PF × Limit Load ×
EFC × ELCF
Pre-proof NDI to
demonstrate flaw
meets 4× service lives
No NDI implented, but find critical
flaw size that passes proof test and
demonstrate 4× service lives
Structural test article
to UF × Limit Load × ECF × ELCF?
Yes
Comprehensive postproof
NDI to demonstrate
flaw meets 4× service
lives
Option 2
Proof test flight article
to PF × Limit Load × EFC ×
ELCF
Proof test flight article
to PF × Limit Load × EFC ×
ELCF
Option 3
Option 4: Proof test logic
Qualification strategies for engine elements, excepting qualification by analysis (no test option), and by similarity. (ECF - environmental correction factor; ELCF -
external load correction factor; UF - Ultimate Factor; PF - Proof Factor)
that specific engine's suitability for
flight. Prelaunch operational testing is
performed prior to engine start and liftoff
to verify readiness for launch. Finally,
additional testing can be performed or
additional data obtained for the system
during the operational phase of a test
flight or actual space launch mission.
Specific requirements are placed upon
qualification, production unit acceptance
testing, and integrated system
testing. There is an allowance, and in
fact an expectation, that engines not
meeting the full requirements of qualification
will be used as a part of the
overall design verification effort to
increase the sample size of suitable
engines. " Verification engines " include
qualification engines and may also
include development engines that are
structurally and functionally equivalent
to the qualification and flight design.
Hereafter, references to the qualification
requirements are meant to include testing
on formal qualification engines as
well as development engines that are
suitable as verification engines.
This work was approved by Nick
Awwad, David Davis, and Thomas Fitzgerald
for the Air Force Space Command.
For more information, download
the Technical Support Package
(free white paper) at mobilityengineeringtech.com/tsp
under the Test &
Measurement category. AFSC-0001
GPS Radio Occultation and Ultraviolet PhotometryColocated
(GROUP-C) Early Orbit Testing Results
After routine flight, capture, and installation, GROUP-C underwent Early Orbit Testing to verify its
performance prior to science operations.
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
T
38
he GPS Radio Occultation and Ultraviolet
- Colocated (GROUP-C)
experiment was originally conceived in
2010 as a CubeSat mission, combining a
compact GPS occultation receiver and
high-sensitivity far-ultraviolet (FUV)
photometer experiment to be flown as a
Space Test Program experiment. The
concept was to incorporate a commercial
off-the-shelf GPS receiver and a
small second-generation FUV photometer
to replicate the space weather portion
of the Constellation Observing System
for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and
Climate (COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3) mission
at lower cost. In the same timeframe,
the Air Force Space and Missile
System Center initiated the Space Environment
NanoSatellite Experiment
(SENSE) to demonstrate several CubeSat
mobilityengineeringtech.com
technologies for space environment
sensing, which included the Compact
Tiny Ionospheric Photometer (CTIP)
and the Compact Total Electron Content
Sensor (CTECS).
The SENSE effort eased the urgency of
demonstrating CubeSat technology
using GROUP-C. When the opportunity
arose in 2013 for GROUP-C to fly on
Space Test Program Houston Pallet #5
Aerospace & Defense Technology, August 2022
http://mobilityengineeringtech.com/tsp http://www.mobilityengineeringtech.com
Aerospace & Defense Technology - August 2022

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