NASA’s Next-Gen Near-Earth Asteroid Space Telescope Takes Shape

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/neo-surveyor/2026/05/05/nasas-next-gen-near-earth-asteroid-space-telescope-takes-shape/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nn202618 NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor — the agency’s first infrared space telescope designed specifically to detect potentially hazardous asteroids and comets — is now in integration and testing at Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. Targeting a launch no earlier than September 2027, teams across the United States are assembling the spacecraft’s components and developing the software needed to process the huge quantity of data the telescope will produce. The NEO Surveyor is designed to help advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. These are collectively known as near-Earth objects, or NEOs. After launch, NEO Surveyor will carry out a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the near-Earth objects larger than 460 feet. These are the objects large enough to cause major regional damage in the event of an Earth impact. By using two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, NEO Surveyor can make accurate measurements of NEO sizes and gain valuable information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits.