Ask anyone on the street, and odds are they'll be familiar with Blue Origin: a space exploration company founded and privately funded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Though it was initially focused on suborbital spaceflight, the company’s operations have expanded to include rocket engines, launch vehicles, and most recently a moon lander set to be completed by 2024.
Due to a complicated design validation system built on homegrown hardware with lacking documentation and support protocols, Blue Origin was losing valuable time and productivity managing and maintaining hardware, executing complex deployment processes, and training personnel on the complex systems. UEI helped Blue Origin consolidate custom and COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) data acquisition and control hardware into one platform to accelerate development, minimize maintenance, and deliver programs on time.
To do so, UEI co-developed custom COTS hardware based on a standardized UEI embedded platform, with a single software API for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), system integration labs (SIL), and design validation and verification applications. The new hardware included 3 new COTS I/O boards:
 | The DNx-RTD-388 8-Channel, 1K Ω RTD (Resistance Temperature Detector) Simulator Board |
 | The DNx-TC-378 8-Channel Thermocouple Simulator |
 | The DNx-AO-319-420 8-Channel Isolated 4-20 mA current sinking D/A Board with Built-In-Test |
The new I/O boards’ compatibility with a standardized UEI system allowed them to be paired with existing standardized UEI hardware to produce the best fitting system solution possible. UEI hardware improved Blue Origin’s test capabilities and reduced development time, allowing Blue Origin to focus on their core mission of developing rockets and rocket motors.
To learn more, read UEI's Blue Origin Application Story.
 | Application Story: UEI & Blue Origin Blue Origin needed to consolidate custom and COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) DAQ and control hardware into one platform to accelerate development, minimize maintenance, and deliver programs on time. UEI's standardized hardware solutions helped Blue Origin save time, accelerate development, and compete in the Space Race. Read about the complete solution |
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