NASA Tech Briefs for VACCO's Helium Reclamation Plant! Read More
VACCO is a proud member of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration (CDSE) Read More
Congresswoman Linda Sánchez visited VACCO’s corporate office in South El Monte on November 21, 2016.
VACCO employees and management team were all very excited to have her to visit our facilities.
We especially enjoyed her intelligence, attentiveness, and caring in her interactions with us.
Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket returned to flight with a new look following a two year long reconfiguration to incorporate RD-181 first stage engines. The launch took place on October 17th from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia.
This was the sixth flight of the Antares using VACCO supplied Check Valves, High and Low Pressure Latch Valves, Service Valves and Filters.
Antares was developed to launch Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station, part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The Antares rocket first flew in April 2013 carrying a mass simulator designed to mimic a Cygnus vehicle along with four CubeSats.
“Today after nearly four years of non-use we opened latch valves and fired a pyrovalve to repressurize the propellant tanks on the Juno spacecraft. Everything went well as we had hoped.”
The events as told to VACCO by Lockheed Martin were as follows; Lockheed first opened the two VACCO high pressure latch valves which brought GHe back on line to pressurize the fuel tanks. The latch valves opened fine and the VACCO check valves showed proper crack and reseat. Then, they fired a pyrovalve and repressurized the OX tank (the same good check valve performance was repeated). After a 4 hour period the two high pressure latch valves were closed. The spacecraft was then pressurized for Juno’s Orbit Insertion phase or JOI and the valves were reopened Sunday afternoon (33 hours before JOI) for the orbit burn which we later learned to be as successful.
Lockheed Martin
VACCO Industries congratulates Lockheed Martin on their successful mission, and we are proud to be aboard the Juno spacecraft.
MAVEN spacecraft arrived at Mars! The satellite seamlessly entered the Martian orbit Sunday, September 21 to begin its one-year mission. Built by Lockheed Martin, NASA launched MAVEN toward the red planet on November 18, 2013. VACCO proudly has the following hardware in its Propulsion System:
The primary mission of this satellite is to study Mars’ upper atmosphere. Coupling its data with Curiosity’s ground testing statistics will provide scientists with a full picture of Mars’ atmosphere.
On May 6, 2014, VACCO Industries hosted a celebration at its South El Monte facility to commemorate 60 years of success. Read more about VACCO and the special event here:
United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Thursday, February 20, 2014, carrying Boeing’s GPS IIF-5 satellite. It is the fifth of twelve in the Block IIF satellites, which are all intended to replace older satellites in the Global Positioning System (GPS). Each satellite has a service life of approximately twelve years.
VACCO Industries supplied ten Metal Mesh Filters to the Delta IV rocket, and also supplied the following hardware to the GPS IIF-5 satellite:
For more details about the Delta IV rocket launch and the GPS IIF-5 satellite, click here.
On January 23, 2014 at 9:33 p.m. EST, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket blasted NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-L) to Earth orbit. Built by Boeing Space Systems, the TDRS-L satellite’s mission is to provide high-data-rate communications between earth ground stations, the International Space Station (ISS) and Hubble Space Telescope.
VACCO Industries supplied 11 Metal Mesh Filters to the ULA Atlas V Launch Vehicle, which illuminated clear Florida skies for hundreds of miles during its nighttime lift off at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
VACCO also supplied 50 Latch Valves, Etched Disc Filters, Check Valves, and Fill & Drain valves to Boeing to build the TDRS-L Satellite for NASA. The huge satellite is now safely in orbit.
On January 20, 2014, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta comet-chaser spacecraft tweeted “Hello, world!” in several languages. The preprogrammed message notified scientists at ESA mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, that Rosetta is awake after a 2 ½ year sleep induced to save energy.
With recharged energy systems, the spacecraft will continue its mission of studying comets in detail. Rosetta, which has VACCO Etched Disc Filters aboard, will rendezvous with the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet in August.
