STAR-GOAT is a complete test stand platform: high-speed data acquisition, deterministic real-time control, and operator visualization in one configurable system. It replaces months of scratch-built LabVIEW DAQ and control code, so your engineers work on the article under test, not the software under it. Your data, the program's real product, is never the weak link.
PROVEN: NASA arc jet (plasma wind tunnel) · commercial hot-fire campaigns · hypersonic ground test · automotive test cells
Deployed across rocket engine stands, a NASA arc jet complex, a U.S. hypersonic test range, and automotive test cells, on programs where the data is the deliverable and a lost run has a real price.
Your engineers could build it, and that talent is why your program will succeed. The question is allocation: should they spend the next six months on the engine, or on the plumbing under it?
The run, the article, or the window. Never just time.
Homegrown DAQ code gets its shakedown during live tests, on hardware you can't afford to lose. Every fire spends finite engine life, so a wasted run buys nothing. Meanwhile, your LabVIEW-capable engineers are propulsion engineers first.
Tunnel time is sold by the hour, and the data is the product. A fault delivers a defective product to your customer. Run several tunnels at one site and the pain multiplies: each tunnel has its own aging bespoke system, each kept alive by the one engineer who still understands it. One platform ends that.
Building NPR 7150.2 Class C/D compliance from scratch routinely costs person-years, and a single audit finding can stop a program. Evidence grounded in a delivered system is what survives procurement.
Vacuum pump-down, special environments, consumables replaced between runs: windows are scarce and booked months out. A data loss or control fault forfeits one outright.
A test stand is not operated by one person. Different engineers own different subsystems, and whoever is calling the run is not the person watching the instrumentation. STAR-GOAT runs role-configured operator stations at safe standoff distance, while the control loop runs on a separate controller that no station can stall.
Up to five connected clients per system over NI Network Streams, each configured for the role that owns it. The control loop runs on none of them, so a hung UI, a slow network, or a crashed laptop cannot stall a test in progress.
Conditions are evaluated while a sequence runs, at sequence scope or at a single step, and trigger automatic action at controller rates instead of waiting for an operator to notice a number move.
Conditional, nested sequences authored and reviewed in configuration rather than buried in code only one engineer understands. Match the controller to the requirement: on a real-time controller, sequence timing holds at or under 100 µs of error at 82% CPU load, while Windows and cRIO measure in milliseconds. All three platforms are benchmarked, under load, in the performance datasheet.
Full-rate TDMS logging with automatic rollover, plus event, alert, and error logs: the record you need when a customer or an auditor challenges a run.
DAQmx, XNET/CAN, and OPC UA are native. Modbus is not: it ships as a template extension built on the same documented interface we hand you, as a starting point you adapt to your device. The plug-in path is not a diagram, it is how we ship protocol support. The system runs on hardware you procure, and the devices we have explicitly tested are named in the supported hardware list.
A full data acquisition system upgrade for NASA's arc jet complex: high-enthalpy flow over instrumented articles, synchronous high-channel-count acquisition, and complete NPR 7150.2D Class C compliance. Articles are consumed in the plasma stream: there is no retest, so the run's data has to be right the first time. Wind-tunnel-class work, delivered and in service.
At Astra, STAR-GOAT serves as a data acquisition and control platform supporting routine test operations including facility and engine checkouts, and hot fire testing: giving the test team a reliable, configurable interface for high-speed data acquisition and control.
Extreme-rate acquisition and real-time control on ground test infrastructure where security requirements narrow the vendor field and a forfeited window takes months to rebook.
The same core platform, exercised through its XNET/CAN acquisition path in automotive test cells. Proof the architecture generalizes beyond aerospace without touching the core.
“JKI’s STAR-GOAT software has been an ideal choice for our engine test stand. Its reliability, scalability, and intuitive interface enable us to operate the entire stand with confidence while making instrumentation and control changes quickly and efficiently, without losing valuable time troubleshooting control software.”Colin McDonald · Manager of Test Engineering, Astra
Before you commit to anything: talk to the JKI engineers who built these systems, not a salesperson. Get the full performance datasheet, every platform benchmarked under load, including where we are weakest. Watch a live system run a sequence and trip an abort condition. Read the product documentation. And if a conversation with the NASA Ames team would help, we can ask.
Each tier is a starting configuration. Channel counts, rates, and client counts are set against your channel map during scoping.
Component rigs, subscale articles, and lab-bench test cells getting rigorous data without standing up a software development effort.
Active campaigns where a lost test day has a real price and configurations change weekly: development engines, tunnel entries, test cells running back to back.
The whole stand on one system: hundreds of instruments at full rate, deterministic control at kilohertz rates, and the campaigns where a single run carries a flight article.
As needed
“JKI’s STAR-GOAT is intuitive and trusted across our test operations. It performs reliably across a wide range of applications, and their team has been responsive whenever we’ve needed support.”Micah Williams · Head of Test, Astra
Pricing follows your readiness review. Every quote is scoped against your channel map, control requirements, compliance obligations, and what a lost test day actually costs your program. All packages are available with perpetual licensing.
A free, 45-minute structured working session with a JKI test engineer. You leave with your own build-vs-buy numbers and a clear view of your compliance exposure, whether or not you buy anything.