Solar cells inspected on NASA’s NEO Surveyor

NASA said a technician inspected the large sunshade of its Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in late July.

Applied Aerospace built the sunshade structure in Stockton, California, the agency said. SolAero Technologies outfitted the structure with solar cells in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in January.

Environmental testing of the sunshade and solar array was completed at a commercial thermal vacuum testing facility in El Segundo, California, in March, NASA said.

The testing covered the sunshade structure and its solar array. The work took place at a commercial thermal vacuum testing facility in El Segundo, California, according to the announcement.

The sunshade was delivered to BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems ahead of schedule in May, NASA said. The agency did not provide a date for the inspection in the announcement.

When in space, NEO Surveyor will seek out some of the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets, the agency said. Some of those objects may be located in the direction of the Sun.

NASA said ground-based optical telescopes have a harder time searching that region of sky. The mission’s large sunshade was outfitted with solar cells before environmental testing and delivery to BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems.

NASA’s announcement was published on Monday 26 October 2026. It described the inspection, the work on the sunshade and solar cells, the environmental testing and the delivery of the structure to BAE Systems.