VACUUM FURNACES NEWS

The most recent launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 Mission included a large titanium manifold housing designed to rapidly propel astronauts away from the main rocket in case of a catastrophic explosion or any other unexpected event. This critical part was vacuum heat treated by Solar Atmospheres of Western PA.

On Wednesday, November 16, 2022, NASA’s unmanned Orion spacecraft launched successfully from Cape Canaveral at 1:47 am for a six-week test flight around the moon and back. This launch marks the first iteration of NASA’s moon-to-Mars Artemis 1 program.  For the 2014 Orion launch, NASA introduced the Launch Abort System (LAS). Once fired, the LAS will accelerate the astronauts away from the main rocket at forces up to 10 to 15 times normal gravity (“G’s”).

“Before the mighty Artemis rocket left Earth’s atmosphere with 8.8 million pounds of thrust, many of the components and support hardware had already experienced a lunar-like atmosphere here in western Pennsylvania,” commented Michael Johnson, sales director at Solar Atmospheres. “Many of the [6AL-4V] titanium and Inconel components were processed well below 1×10^-5 Torr throughout thermal processing. Although our crew here on Earth were wearing nitrile gloves, it’s overwhelming to know we had a hand in heat treating these critical parts.”

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