April 25, 2007

CSA Engineering’s SoftRide isolators were used aboard a Pegasus XL rocket for NASA’s AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) mission that launched successfully on Wednesday, April 25. A modified L-1011 jet carried the winged booster to a specific point over the Pacific Ocean where it was then released. The rocket reached an orbit that will give AIM the best view of polar mesospheric clouds which some scientists say could be an indicator of climate change.

SoftRide was able to reduce the predicted launch loads to such an acceptable level for the entire spacecraft and its components that one of the electronic boxes, which had used vibration-isolating mounts up through system ground testing, was ultimately hard-mounted for the launch. “This demonstrates the flexibility that SoftRide provides to spacecraft manufacturers when a configuration change can be made three months prior to launch”, says Raman Johal, CSA’s project manager for the mission. He added, “We worked very hard to tailor SoftRide’s performance for the unique demands of the Pegasus XL launch vehicle.”