Similar in principle to the shock-absorbing air bags that preserve those old plates and saucers, a new technology developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory here may now help prevent severe rocket motor vibrations from shaking apart fragile satellite subsystems during launch.

"We've been looking for a softer ride and expect our recently developed 'whole-spacecraft isolation system', launched for the first time today aboard an Orbital Sciences Corporation Taurus-2, is the solution," said aerospace research engineer Dr. Dino Sciulli of AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate.

The Taurus-2 payload is the Navy's GEOSAT Follow-On satellite, which will study Pacific Ocean currents and map the progress of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino.

"Given persistently high launch costs, getting the job done right the first time so that payloads will operate properly once in orbit is critical for the space industry," Sciulli explained.

Placing sensitive satellites safely into orbit has meant finding a way to reduce the brutal g-force shocks induced by launch vehicle motors, especially the engines of smaller-class, liquid-fueled rockets which vibrate more than their larger, solid-fuel counterparts.

Built for AFRL by CSA Engineering, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., under a 1996 Small Business Innovative Research contract, the isolator system is a ring of passive shock absorbers that replaces the traditional bolts fastening the payload to the launch vehicle.

"Reinforcing satellites to survive launch stress loads has been the customary approach," said Sciulli. "But considering the extra weight, and the resulting higher cost per payload pound launched that is added by structural stiffening, overall efficiency is dramatically reduced."

Sciulli said that during Taurus-2 launch load testing, engineers discovered that too much stress was being placed on the GFO payload and that it either had to be structurally beefed-up or the vibrations reduced.

He estimated that AFRL's isolator system, which was delivered in four months, saved GFO prime contractor Ball Aerospace approximately 3-6 months and millions of dollars in redesign efforts.