A technician inspects the large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in this image released on Oct. 26, 2026. The sunshade structure, which stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall and measures 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide at its base, will keep the infrared space telescope cool as it searches for near-Earth asteroids and comets while also providing the spacecraft with power.

When in space, NEO Surveyor will detect some of the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets, some of which may be located in the direction of the Sun — a region of sky where ground-based optical telescopes have a harder time searching.

Read more about the sunshade and NEO Surveyor.

Image credit: BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems