Labs & Facilities

Labs & Facilities

Facilitating successful on-orbit performance

LASP offers extensive engineering facilities to develop and test spacecraft on site. Our state-of-the-art test and calibration facilities allow our engineers to work in tandem with scientists, mission operators, and software developers to create “test-like-you-fly” scenarios. These investments, coupled with our more than 70 years of evolving expertise, contribute greatly to LASP’s superior on-orbit performance record.

In LASP’s fully equipped machine shop and metrology laboratory, machinists fabricate instrument components from magnesium, stainless steel, titanium, and other materials with incredibly tight tolerances of 0.0005 of an inch.

Our NASA-qualified electrical assembly and polymerics lab is used for electronics and cable fabrication.

LASP has multiple calibration labs for characterizing instruments operating in wavelengths varying from ultraviolet to infrared. Our Black Lab and Yellow Lab enable testing under specific light conditions.

Our institute’s thermal vacuum test facilities are used to test our instruments so they will endure the harsh conditions of space. LASP has four thermovac chambers that are used for mechanism performance, burn-in and life tests, as well as classic thermal balance and cycling tests associated with flight integration and test programs.

LASP has four high-vacuum bake-out chambers to reduce outgassing and verify the cleanliness of parts, ensuring that material outgassing does not degrade sensitive optical components on instruments, or contaminate other vacuum facilities.

LASP’s four ISO-7 cleanrooms have specially designed systems to control contamination, ensuring that stray dust particles or fingerprints won’t disrupt or disable incredibly sensitive instruments and components. Two cleanrooms are large enough to provide the flexibility to engineer entire spacecraft.

LASP’s engineering facilities are available for external customers to use at an hourly rate. For additional information, please contact:

Engineering: Clean Rooms