NASA Scientists Choose Harris Precision Optics to Build WFIRST Space Optical Imaging Telescope

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February 12, 2019 | Originally published by Date Line: February 12 on

U.S. space scientists needed a precision optical instrument to be the core imager of the nation’s next-generation orbiting deep-space observation system. They found their solution from the Harris Corp. Precision Optics segment in Rochester, N.Y.

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in December announced a $195.9 million eight-year contract to Harris Precision Optics to design and build the optical telescope assembly (OTA) for the future Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

The future WFIRST orbiting space-observation instrument will have nearly 300 times as many pixels as the infrared camera of the Hubble Space Telescope, and will be able to take images with 100 times the field of view of Hubble. Also working on this contract is the Harris Space and Intelligence Systems segment in Palm Bay, Fla.