NASA reported on October 26, 2026, that teams had completed integrating the solar array onto NEO Surveyor’s sunshield and finished the array’s functional and performance tests. The update said mission development was continuing, placing the achievement at the component level. NASA’s October update
The sunshield brings two jobs together: keeping solar glare off the infrared telescope and carrying the array that powers the spacecraft.
One structure shields the telescope and supplies power
NASA says the sunshield blocks sunlight from the telescope aperture to keep the infrared telescope cool. Its two flat panels meet at a 23.5-degree angle. The structure is 6 meters tall and 2.4 meters wide at its base.
The sunshield carries 864 interconnected solar cells. NASA says the array can produce up to 2 kilowatts to charge the spacecraft’s batteries and power its systems. NASA’s description of the sunshield and array
The sunshield milestone is one part of mission development
NASA’s October report described the solar-array integration and functional and performance testing as complete while mission development continued. The sunshield had passed through several earlier stages: Applied Aerospace built the structure in Stockton, California, and SolAero Technologies fitted it with solar cells in Albuquerque in January 2026. NASA said environmental testing of the sunshield and array was completed in March at a thermal-vacuum facility in El Segundo, California. BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems received the structure in Boulder, Colorado, in May, and technicians inspected it there in late July. NASA’s account of the work
The telescope’s two infrared detector arrays each create a 16-megapixel mosaic of the sky. NASA says observations of the same region in two infrared bands let the science team estimate an object’s temperature and size. NASA’s explanation of the telescope’s infrared observations
