Jan. 11, 2016

Members of the Atsa Suborbital Observatory team visited XCOR Aerospace in Mojave, Cal. to test fit the redesigned Atsa 1 camera in the cockpit engineering testbed/simulator of the Lynx spacecraft. The team also did cockpit entry/exit testing and developed procedures for installing and removing the Atsa 1 camera from the spacecraft.
Participating were Atsa Deputy Project Scientist and PSI Senior Scientist Luke Sollitt and students Angelica McNerny and Cody Smithey of The Citadel and Victoria Houston of the College of Charleston.

The Atsa project will use a reusable suborbital spacecraft equipped with a specially designed telescope to provide low-cost, space-based observations from above the limiting atmosphere of Earth, while avoiding some operational constraints of satellite telescopes such as the inability to observe objects close to the Sun.
The photo collage above shows Atsa team members fitting the Atsa 1 camera in the Lynx spacecraft at XCOR Aerospace.
PSI Senior Scientist Faith Vilas is Atsa’s Project Scientist.