NASA’s NEO Surveyor sunshade is inspected in Boulder

NASA said on Monday 26 October 2026 that the large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor was mounted on an assembly ring during inspections in a clean room at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in July 2026. The agency published the announcement with a description and image of the work.

The sunshade structure stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall and measures 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide at its base. Its two flat panels, joined at a 23.5-degree angle, were covered with 864 interconnected solar cells and then tested before arriving in Colorado.

NASA said the specialized solar array can produce up to 2 kilowatts of power. It will generate all the required electricity to charge the onboard batteries that power the spacecraft’s systems. The panels were tested before the structure arrived in Colorado.

The sunshade structure was built by Applied Aerospace in Stockton, California. SolAero Technologies outfitted the structure with its solar cells in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in January. The solar-cell work was completed before the structure was delivered to Colorado.

Environmental testing of the sunshade and solar array was completed at a commercial thermal vacuum testing facility in El Segundo, California, in March. The structure was delivered to BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems ahead of schedule in May.

When in space, NEO Surveyor will seek out some of the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets, some of which may be located in the direction of the Sun. NASA said this is a region of sky where ground-based optical telescopes have a harder time searching.