Vacuum Facility 3 (VF-3)
The VF-3 at Glenn Research Center’s Electric Propulsion Research Building
With a focus as a pulsed plasma-thruster testbed, the VF-3 is part of NASA’s Glenn Research Center’s Electric Propulsion Research Building (EPRB) complex, whose capabilities center on a suite of vacuum chambers configured to meet the unique requirements related to electric propulsion, spacecraft power, and space environmental effects.
EPRB chambers range in size from bench-top bell jars to three meters in diameter, and are equipped with a variety of pumping systems: cryopumps, diffusion pumps, oil-free pumping trains, and high-throughput roots-blowers. In addition to the vacuum chambers, EPRB provides over 20,000 square feet of specialty labs, clean rooms, and assembly rooms.