Jane Edwards
Boeing’s Spectrolab subsidiary will produce, test and integrate approximately 4,000 NeXt Triple Junction Prime solar cells for a NASA space telescope named after the agency’s first chief astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman.
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is expected to launch no later than May 2027 to look for distant planets and investigate the expansion of the universe and other astronomical mysteries, Boeing said Tuesday.
“Using Spectrolab’s XTJ Prime solar cells, NASA will be able to maximize the Roman Space Telescope’s power generation, allowing greater data gathering capability while operating in a unique mission environment at the L2 Lagrange point,” said Tony Mueller, president of Spectrolab.
The solar cells from Spectrolab will power the telescope’s Wide Field Instrument, Coronagraph Instrument and the primary mirror. The space observatory’s solar array has six panels and consists of about 4,000 triple junction solar cells.
Spectrolab has manufactured more than 6.5 million gallium-arsenide solar cells for over 1,000 spacecraft in the last six decades.
