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Preparing for Vibration Tests #1

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Covered in protective bags to prevent any contamination from particles, such as dust, the nearly identical APL-built twin STEREO observatories are stacked and moved into APL's vibration laboratory for testing.

During vibration tests, which simulate the ride into space the observatories will encounter aboard a Delta II launch vehicle, engineers use a large "shake" table to check the structural integrity of the twin spacecraft.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory