Extending part of ESA’s Test Centre in preparation for the construction of ESA’s Large Space Simulator (LSS) back in 1983.
The LSS was an enlargement of a previous thermal vacuum chamber, the Dynamic Test Chamber – seen here – which then had a 12-m diameter horizontal lamphouse added to one side to accommodate a Sun simulator and mirror array capable of producing a 6-m diameter beam of sunlight.
Some 35 years on the 15-m high 10-m diameter LSS remains the largest thermal vacuum chamber in Europe, simulating the vacuum and temperature extremes of orbital space.
ESA’s Test Centre at Noordwijk in the Netherlands collects together test facilities to simulate every aspect of the space environment in cleanroom conditions under a single roof.