General Criteria of Aerospace Ground Equipment

This paper describes the criteria by which the quality of Aerospace Ground Equipment is judged. It outlines the origin of the basic requirements for which AGE is designed and the conditions in which it must operate. The paper gives some examples of typical conditions. The need for conformance to the logistic conditions and operational methods of the launch vehicle customer is described. The unusually high demand on reliability is outlined by an example. The influence of hypergolic propellants on the design of AGE is shown. The sources of the AGE and the various steps in which AGE is tested--as well as the typical functions--are described.