Space

Space Component Qualification – Vibration, Shock & TVAC Testing

Vibration, shock and thermal vacuum. 

How Can We Help?

We help New Space teams qualify flight hardware and close design risk faster. Our
engineers plan, rig and execute mechanical and environmental test programmes that
reflect real launch and orbital conditions – not simplified lab profiles.

One partner. One schedule. One data set & reporting
Resonate Testing allows you reclaim your edge.
ISO 17025 accredited. Customer rating 4.9 out of 5.0. Integrated vibration, shock
and thermalvacuum capability under one roof.

For each programme we: Translate your mission and launchvehicle environments into test
specifications with correct margins, acceptance criteria and sequence logic.

Design fixturing that matches realistic boundary conditions—interface
stiffness, mass distribution, cable routing, and thermal paths.

Instrument the test article precisely and verify channel integrity before every
run.

Control tests through highaccuracy closedloop systems and capture
highbandwidth datasets suitable for qualification evidence.

You receive clean data, clearly annotated plots and a narrative report that links
results to your design assumptions and qualification criteria

Why Resonate
Test facilitator, not just a facility

Bring us your challenge—“this must survive launch”—and we turn it into a robust, defensible evidence based environmental test plan.

  • Review ECSS, RTCA/DO-160, ISO 16750-3, MIL-STD-810 or customer-specific requirements.
  • Identify critical axes, resonances, margins and qualification vs. protoflight differences.
  • Propose instrumentation layouts, sampling rates and trigger logic aligned with your failure modes.
  • Agree fixtures, safety constraints, witness points, and data-release structures before testing begins.

Integrated capability

Vibration, SRS shock and TVAC (Q1 2026) run in one coordinated campaign:

  • Shared instrumentation philosophy across environments.
  • Common DAQ time base for vibration, shock and thermal sequences.
  • Reduced handling risk, fewer logistics movements, and consistent reporting.

Accredited, precise, dependable

  • ISO 17025-accredited mechanical and environmental testing.
  • Full traceability for sensors, amplifiers, DAQ channels and controllers.
  • Rigorous tolerance-checking, pre-test trials and documented control strategies.
  • Repeatable, tidy rig layouts to ensure reproducibility across campaigns.

Built for SMEs

  • Agile schedules and transparent communication.
  • Hands-on engineering support with access to the team running your test.
  • Realistic fixed-price options for qualification and development testing.

Capabilities at a glance

Vibration testing

Electrodynamic vibration testing up to 70 kN, 1.8 m head expanders, payloads to 2 tonnes.

Profiles supported:

  • Random vibration: broadband launch environments with multi-channel control, notching and spectral shaping.
  • Sine vibration: modal sweeps, dwell at resonances and limiting for fragile subsystems.
  • Sine-on-random / Random-on-random: mixed environments and tonal injection.
  • Swept-sine qualification: programmable sweep rates, automatic resonance tracking.

Instrumentation for vibration includes:

  • Triaxial and single-axis piezoelectric accelerometers, IEPE-powered with sensitivities matched to expected g-levels.
  • High-g shock-rated accelerometers for components with stiff interfaces.
  • Remote charge amplifiers for low-noise signal conditioning.
  • Multiple control and monitor channels to ensure uniform input across the article.
  • Anti-alias filtering, time-synchronised sampling and digital verification of coherence.

We routinely perform:

  • Pre- and post-test modal surveys to detect structural changes.
  • Interface-specific instrumentation (e.g., bracket strain, PCB accelerometers).
  • Real-time limit checking to protect fragile hardware.

Shock and SRS

For pyroshock-representative or classical shock events:

  • Half-sine, sawtooth, trapezoidal shocks.
  • SRS-shaped pulses tuned to your upper/lower tolerance bounds.
  • Fixture and mass-dummy iterations to achieve target SRS.

Instrumentation and acquisition for shock:

  • High-bandwidth piezoelectric accelerometers (≥ 30 kHz usable).
  • Ultra-short rise-time sensors for pyroshock (>100 kHz).
  • High-rate DAQ (up to MHz-class sampling depending on requirement).
  • Time-domain and SRS post-processing with defined windowing and filtering.
  • Rigorous cable-strain, grounding and shielding practices to avoid spurious peaks.

Thermal vacuum (TVAC)

TVAC capability online Q1 2026:

  • −80 °C to +120 °C cycling, vacuum to 1×10⁻⁷ mbar.
  • Thermal balance, non-operational and operational cycling.
  • Bake-out sequences for contamination control.

Instrumentation for TVAC:

  • Type-K or Type-T thermocouples with vacuum-rated feedthroughs.
  • 4–20 mA and low-voltage sensor monitoring through hermetic connectors.
  • Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) contamination-monitoring capability (roadmap).
  • Pressure transducers spanning roughing to high-vacuum regimes.
  • Continuous logging of heater power, chamber temperature, radiation plate temperature and article responses.
  • Remote functional test harnessing for power, comms and telemetry during thermal plateaus.

Clean handling

ISO 5 / Class 100 tented environments support:

  • Pre- and post-test inspection with FOD control.
  • Protected assembly for optics, mechanisms and contamination-sensitive components.
  • Anti-static provisions and grounding to protect electronics.

Bespoke engineering, DAQ and reporting

We tailor the engineering stack to your mission:

  • Fixture design using FEA for stiffness, mass optimisation and avoiding parasitic modes.
  • Sensor mounting strategies: adhesive pads, stud mounts, isolating washers, thermal isolation for TVAC.
  • Multi-environment DAQ with synchronised timestamps and channel cross-correlation.
  • Reports aligned with qualification milestones (PDR, CDR, QR, AR, FRR).

Standards we work to

ECSS, RTCA/DO-160, ISO 16750-3, MIL-STD-810, plus customer-defined profiles and launch-provider environments.

Heritage signals

  • Ariane 6 & Vega-C: vibration and shock campaigns for launch readiness.
  • Lunar Pathfinder: shock qualification delivered in collaboration with EECL.

Réaltra: local shock qualification to maintain schedule.

How we work

  1. Plan
    • Review your requirements, FEM results and heritage evidence.
    • Define test matrices, limit lines, axes, cycles and acceptance criteria.
    • Specify instrumentation, sampling rates, filtering and trigger conditions.
  2. Build & instrument
    • Design fixtures that preserve your boundary stiffness and mode structure.
    • Layout accelerometers, thermocouples and strain channels for maximum insight.
    • Verify DAQ with end-to-end calibration and polarity/continuity checks.
  3. Run & monitor
    • Closed-loop vibration control with multi-channel monitoring.
    • Shock pulses tuned by dummy-mass trials.
    • Live TVAC telemetry on temperature gradients, vacuum levels and functional channels.
  4. Analyse & report
    • High-resolution time histories, PSDs, SRS, thermal plots and margin evaluations.
    • Clear pass/fail statements and links to requirement IDs.
    • Recommendations for follow-on testing or design improvements.
  5. Next steps
    • Support your QR/AR reviews with concise engineering-focused evidence packs.

Resonate Testing is an established and experienced commercial test house meeting needs across many industry sectors by offering locally or geographically diverse customers impressive capabilities coupled with a fast turnaround model.

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  • Email: info@resonatetesting.com
  • Telephone: +44 (0)2890 736390

Address:
Unit 1, Bridge Technology Park Carnagat Lane, Chancellors Road Newry Co.Down, United Kingdom, BT35 8XF

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This expertise and knowledge in the aerospace sector has been easily extended to various industries and other unique test applications, including electrical and mechanical product testing, packaging testing, many transportation and lifecycles tests for the MedTech industry to name but a few NSC’s experience in aerospace engineering provides a key foundation for our capabilities in test specification and certification with the result that customers can be confident of a highly professional and knowledgeable service.

Resonate Testing is part of a wider diversification and growth strategy founded upon the practical application of our engineering knowledge and experience. we have the unique position of unfettered access to the EU, UK and global markets.

With a 7500sqft facility of purpose-built test space, Resonate Testing can meet testing needs in various industries by offering locally or geographically diverse customers impressive capabilities coupled with a fast turnaround model. The facility includes a combined vibration and environmental laboratory (the only commercial facility on the Island of Ireland that can perform combined temperature and vibration testing up to 54kN), a fire test laboratory and a general mechanical test facility. Resonate Testing is UKAS accredited to ISO17025, ISTA and, as part of The Nacelle Group, certified to ISO9001:2015.

Maintaining a strong engineering team, we differentiate ourselves by demonstrating our ability to support clients fully, as a complete Test Service Facilitator.