NASA’s NEO Surveyor has passed its critical design review, clearing the way for construction and testing.
This infrared telescope will be the first space mission dedicated to detecting hazardous asteroids and comets, with a launch planned no earlier than 2027.
NEO Surveyor Passes Critical Design Review
On February 6, NASA’s NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor) successfully passed its critical design review (CDR) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where the mission is managed. After three days of in-depth presentations, a NASA Standing Review Board confirmed that the mission meets all required technical and performance standards. With this milestone achieved, the project now moves into the next stages of construction and testing.
The spacecraft’s instrument enclosure was initially built at JPL before being sent to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for environmental testing. These tests simulate the harsh conditions of launch and space to ensure the equipment’s durability. The enclosure will soon return to JPL for further development.
Finalizing the Telescope for Integration
Meanwhile, the mission’s telescope, housed within a large aluminum structure known as the Optical Telescope Assembly, is undergoing final testing at JPL. This spring, both the telescope and instrument enclosure will be shipped to the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) in Logan, Utah, where the remaining subsystems will be integrated and tested.
As NASA’s first space-based detection mission specifically designed for planetary defense, NEO Surveyor will seek out, measure, and characterize the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that might pose a hazard to Earth. While these near-Earth objects don’t reflect much visible light, they glow brightly in infrared light due to heating by the Sun.
Countdown to 2027 Launch
Scheduled for launch no earlier than late 2027, the NEO Surveyor mission is led by Professor Amy Mainzer at UCLA on behalf of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The mission is being developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under the oversight of the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Several aerospace and engineering companies, including BAE Systems, Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL), and Teledyne, have been contracted to build the spacecraft and its instruments. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, will handle mission operations, while IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, California, will process survey data and produce mission data products. JPL, which is managed by Caltech for NASA, is overseeing the spacecraft’s development.
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