NASA's NEO Surveyor Sunshade Details Revealed During Inspection

According to NASA News Releases, the large sunshade belonging to NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor was being inspected while mounted on an assembly ring inside a clean room at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, during July 2026. The sunshade structure has a height of 20 feet (6 meters) and a base width of 8 feet (2.4 meters). The structure features two flat panels that meet at a 23.5-degree angle, and these panels were covered with 864 interconnected solar cells. This specialized solar array is capable of producing up to 2 kilowatts of power, which will supply all the necessary electricity to charge the batteries that power the spacecraft's systems.

The sunshade structure was constructed by Applied Aerospace in Stockton, California, and SolAero Technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico, installed the solar cells in January. Environmental testing for the sunshade and solar array concluded at a commercial thermal vacuum testing facility in El Segundo, California, in March, and it was delivered to BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems ahead of schedule in May.

Once in space, NEO Surveyor is intended to search for asteroids and comets that are difficult to locate, including some that might be situated in the direction of the Sun, an area of the sky where ground-based optical telescopes face challenges in searching.