NASA engineers inspected the solar-powered sunshade for the NEO Surveyor spacecraft. The mission aims to find difficult-to-detect asteroids near the Sun.
NASA team members recently inspected the sunshade for the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor. They worked inside a clean room in Boulder, Colorado. This took place during July 2026.
The structure stands 20 feet tall. It measures 8 feet wide at its base. These measurements show the scale of the large equipment.
Also, the design features two flat panels. They connect at a specific 23.5-degree angle. Workers covered these panels with 864 solar cells.
Next, the team tested the solar array before it moved to Colorado. This system produces up to 2 kilowatts of power. It will charge the spacecraft batteries during the mission.
Applied Aerospace built the structure in Stockton, California. Then, SolAero Technologies added the solar cells in New Mexico. They finished this work back in January.
After that, the sunshade underwent environmental testing. This happened at a facility in El Segundo, California. The team finished these tests in March.
Meanwhile, the hardware arrived at the Colorado facility early. It reached the BAE Systems site in May. This delivery happened ahead of the original schedule.
Finally, the spacecraft will head into space. It will hunt for asteroids and comets. These objects are often hard for ground telescopes to see.
As a result, NEO Surveyor will look toward the Sun. Ground-based tools struggle to scan this area. The new mission will fill this gap in our search efforts.