Space Dynamics Laboratory engineers prepare to ship the engineering test unit of the Short-Wave Infrared Detection Assembly for NASA’s PACE spacecraft. Photo: Space Dynamics Laboratory/Allison Bills

The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) has recently delivered an engineering test unit of the Short-Wave Infrared Detection Assembly, to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This is a major subcomponent on NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem spacecraft (PACE). 

PACE, which is scheduled to launch in late 2022, is designed to extend and improve NASA’s satellite observations of global ocean biology, aerosols, and clouds. The instrument SDL designing, which is known as the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), will measure properties of light over portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, with the goal of enabling scientists to view continuous measurements of light made with higher resolution than is currently available.

“The delivery of the engineering test unit for the [Short-Wave Infrared] Detection Assembly is a critical milestone that will enable NASA to perform several months of rigorous instrument-level testing to prove the flight design currently being built at SDL,” said Gabe Loftus, SDL’s program manager for OCI. “Once launched, the flight-ready instrument will image the ocean from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared spectrum, giving NASA critical information on ocean ecology with unprecedented fidelity.”