James Fesmire, Ph.D., left, NASA lead engineer for the Cryogenics Testbed, and Adam Swanger, cryogenics engineer, hold a training session on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Cryogenics Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The training is for personnel who will be working to insulate pipes on the mobile launcher (ML). The ML is equipped with cryogenic fluid lines that will deliver hydrogen and oxygen to NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The lines must be kept well-insulated to maintain temperatures cold enough to keep fluids in a liquid state. In a new process, workers are learning how to pack spaces between pipes with aerogel granules in the same manner as they will on the ML.

James Fesmire, Ph.D., left, NASA lead engineer for the Cryogenics Testbed, holds a training session on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Cryogenics Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The training is for personnel who will be working to insulate pipes on the mobile launcher (ML). The ML is equipped with cryogenic fluid lines that will deliver hydrogen and oxygen to NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The lines must be kept well-insulated to maintain temperatures cold enough to keep fluids in a liquid state. In a new process, workers are learning how to pack spaces between pipes with aerogel granules in the same manner as they will on the ML.

Center Director Roy Bridges (left), wearing protective apron, gloves and face shield, watches as liquid nitrogen is poured into a container to freeze the plastic tubing for a special "ribbon-breaking" to open the new Cryogenic Testbed Facility. Bridges hit the section of tubing with a small hammer to break it. The Cryogenics Testbed was built to provide cryogenics engineering development and testing services to meet the needs of industry. It will also support commercial, government and academic customers for technology development initiatives on the field of cryogenics. The facility is jointly managed by NASA and Dynacs Engineering Co. , NASA/SC's Engineering Development contractor

A shower of frozen plastic signifies the successful breaking of the ceremonial "ribbon" at the opening of the new Cryogenic Testbed Facility. Part of the normal ribbon was replaced with plastic tubing and frozen in liquid nitrogen for the event. Bridges hit the tubing with a small hammer to break it. The Cryogenics Testbed was built to provide cryogenics engineering development and testing services to meet the needs of industry. It will also support commercial, government and academic customers for technology development initiatives on the field of cryogenics. The facility is jointly managed by NASA and Dynacs Engineering Co. , NASA/SC's Engineering Development contractor

Center Director Roy Bridges (left) dons protective apron, gloves and face shield before the "ribbon-breaking" to open the new Cryogenic Testbed Facility. Part of the normal ceremonial ribbon was replaced with plastic tubing and frozen in liquid nitrogen for the event. Bridges hit the tubing with a small hammer to break it. The Cryogenics Testbed was built to provide cryogenics engineering development and testing services to meet the needs of industry. It will also support commercial, government and academic customers for technology development initiatives on the field of cryogenics. The facility is jointly managed by NASA and Dynacs Engineering Co. , NASA/SC's Engineering Development contractor

Center Director Roy Bridges (center) is congratulated for the successful breaking of the ceremonial "ribbon" and the opening of the new Cryogenic Testbed Facility. Part of the normal ribbon was replaced with plastic tubing and frozen in liquid nitrogen for the event. Bridges hit the tubing with a small hammer to break it. The Cryogenics Testbed was built to provide cryogenics engineering development and testing services to meet the needs of industry. It will also support commercial, government and academic customers for technology development initiatives on the field of cryogenics. The facility is jointly managed by NASA and Dynacs Engineering Co. , NASA/SC's Engineering Development contractor

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - James E. Fesmire (right), NASA lead engineer for the KSC Cryogenics Testbed, works on Cryostat-1, the Methods of Testing Thermal Insulation and Association Test Apparatus, which he developed. At left is co-inventor Dr. Stan Augustynowicz, chief scientist with Sierra Lobo Inc. in Milan, Ohio. Cryostat-1 provides absolute thermal performance values of cryogenic insulation systems under real-world conditions. Cryogenic liquid is supplied to a test chamber and two guard chambers, and temperatures are sensed within the vacuum chamber to test aerogels, foams or other materials. The Cryostat-1 machine can detect the absolute heat leakage rates through materials under the full range of vacuum conditions. Fesmire recently acquired three patents for testing thermal insulation materials for cryogenic systems. The research team of the Cryogenics Testbed offers testing and support for a number of programs and initiatives for NASA and commercial customers.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - James E. Fesmire (right), NASA lead engineer for the KSC Cryogenics Testbed, works on Cryostat-1, the Methods of Testing Thermal Insulation and Association Test Apparatus, which he developed. At left is co-inventor Dr. Stan Augustynowicz, chief scientist with Sierra Lobo Inc. in Milan, Ohio. Cryostat-1 provides absolute thermal performance values of cryogenic insulation systems under real-world conditions. Cryogenic liquid is supplied to a test chamber and two guard chambers, and temperatures are sensed within the vacuum chamber to test aerogels, foams or other materials. The Cryostat-1 machine can detect the absolute heat leakage rates through materials under the full range of vacuum conditions. Fesmire recently acquired three patents for testing thermal insulation materials for cryogenic systems. The research team of the Cryogenics Testbed offers testing and support for a number of programs and initiatives for NASA and commercial customers.

Workers attend a cryogenic insulation training session on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Cryogenics Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The training is for personnel who will be working to insulate pipes on the mobile launcher (ML). The ML is equipped with cryogenic fluid lines that will deliver hydrogen and oxygen to NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The lines must be kept well-insulated to maintain temperatures cold enough to keep fluids in a liquid state. In a new process, workers are learning how to pack spaces between pipes with aerogel granules in the same manner as they will on the ML.

Workers attend a cryogenic insulation training session on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Cryogenics Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The training is for personnel who will be working to insulate pipes on the mobile launcher (ML). The ML is equipped with cryogenic fluid lines that will deliver hydrogen and oxygen to NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The lines must be kept well-insulated to maintain temperatures cold enough to keep fluids in a liquid state. In a new process, workers are learning how to pack spaces between pipes with aerogel granules in the same manner as they will on the ML.

Workers attend a cryogenic insulation training session on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Cryogenics Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The training is for personnel who will be working to insulate pipes on the mobile launcher (ML). The ML is equipped with cryogenic fluid lines that will deliver hydrogen and oxygen to NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The lines must be kept well-insulated to maintain temperatures cold enough to keep fluids in a liquid state. In a new process, workers are learning how to pack spaces between pipes with aerogel granules in the same manner as they will on the ML.

Workers practice during a cryogenic insulation training session on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Cryogenics Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The training is for personnel who will be working to insulate pipes on the mobile launcher (ML). The ML is equipped with cryogenic fluid lines that will deliver hydrogen and oxygen to NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The lines must be kept well-insulated to maintain temperatures cold enough to keep fluids in a liquid state. In a new process, workers are learning how to pack spaces between pipes with aerogel granules in the same manner as they will on the ML.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Several Lead Zirconate Titanate, or PZT, mass gaging sensors have been attached to a composite tank during a test inside a laboratory at the Cryogenics Testbed Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The PZT-based system was developed at Kennedy as a way to measure the mass of a fluid and the structural health of a tank using vibration signatures on Earth or in reduced/zero g gravity. The mass gaging technology has received approval to be on the first sub-orbital flight on the Virgin Galactic Space Plane in 2015. NASA experiments using the PZT technology will be used by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in conjunction with Carthage College on a fluid transfer experiment. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Casper

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Rudy Werlink, a fluid systems engineer in the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, monitors a test in a lab at the Cryogenics Testbed Facility using the Lead Zirconate Titanate, or PZT-based system that he developed. Werlink developed the PZT-based system at Kennedy as a way to measure the mass of a fluid and the structural health of a tank using vibration signatures on Earth or in reduced/zero g gravity. The mass gaging technology has received approval to be on the first sub-orbital flight on the Virgin Galactic Space Plane in 2015. NASA experiments using the PZT technology will be used by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in conjunction with Carthage College on a fluid transfer experiment. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Casper

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Several Lead Zirconate Titanate, or PZT, mass gaging sensors have been attached to a composite tank during a test inside a laboratory at the Cryogenics Testbed Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The PZT-based system was developed at Kennedy as a way to measure the mass of a fluid and the structural health of a tank using vibration signatures on Earth or in reduced/zero g gravity. The mass gaging technology has received approval to be on the first sub-orbital flight on the Virgin Galactic Space Plane in 2015. NASA experiments using the PZT technology will be used by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in conjunction with Carthage College on a fluid transfer experiment. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Casper