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Photo of Johns Hopkins APL’s Camera Reveals Surprise for NASA’s Lucy Mission in First Asteroid Encounter
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Johns Hopkins APL’s Camera Reveals Surprise for NASA’s Lucy Mission in First Asteroid Encounter

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Integration and Test

Assembling and testing subsystems into a robust flight-qualified spacecraft

The integration and test (I&T) engineering team is responsible for the planning and execution of spacecraft system-level integration and testing, including assembly, functional and environmental testing, and coordinating the launch campaign.

APL's environmental test labs and clean rooms are critical assets to successfully execute the system test campaign for the spacecraft. Testing begins at the box level and proceeds through the full spacecraft assembly, which includes designing and integrating the wiring harness and electrical systems. APL also has a rigorous “test as you fly, fly as you test” philosophy, which is essential to ensuring flight system performance.

Missions

APL has designed, built and operated more than 70 innovative spacecraft over its six decades of spaceflight experience. Click below to learn about some of the missions that made revolutionary discoveries, and spacecraft that will push the boundaries of exploration and investigate outstanding scientific mysteries.

Learn more about Europa Clipper
Rendering of the Europa Clipper spacecraft nearing Europa

Europa Clipper

A mission to survey Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and determine whether it has conditions suitable to harboring life.

Instruments

Scientists and engineers at APL have designed, built and operated more than 300 novel space instruments and methods to conduct cutting-edge research and make groundbreaking discoveries. Click below to learn about some of these instruments and their role in shaping our understanding of space and the solar system.

Learn more about GUVI
Composite of the aurora, as seen by GUVI, superimposed over an image of Earth

GUVI

Mission

TIMED

Destinations

Earth
The Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) observes Earth’s thermosphere, ionosphere and mesosphere.

Stories

Go inside APL’s space missions and research, and check out the latest news, features and discoveries from the teams that are probing mysteries from the Sun to the edge of the solar system and beyond.

An artist's depiction of the silver-colored Dragonfly spacecraft flying over rust-colored dunes and against a hazy, orange sky
Nov 28, 2023

NASA Authorizes Dragonfly Mission to Proceed With Estimated 2028 Launch Readiness Date

NASA's Dragonfly mission team is moving on to the next stage of development of the revolutionary, car-sized, nuclear-powered drone it plans to fly over and land on the organic-rich sands of Saturn's large moon Titan.
A person wearing jeans, blue booties, a white lab coat and a white hair net stands inside a large white box with various pipes and boxes distributed throughout, all while working on a model of the Dragonfly spacecraft
Nov 20, 2023

A Taste of Titan - Dragonfly Team Debuts Johns Hopkins APL's Newest Environmental Test Chamber

The Titan Chamber -- APL's largest environmental simulator -- is open for business. The team developing NASA's Dragonfly mission recently took the chamber for an opening run with a full-scale thermal model of the rotorcraft lander it will send to Saturn's moon Titan later this decade.
A silver drone-like rotorcraft sits on the sandy, tan surface of a planet, with shaded mountains and a hazy sky and Sun in the background
Oct 23, 2023

Tunnel Visions

Well before NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft lander soars through Titan's skies, APL researchers are making sure their designs and models for the nuclear-powered, car-sized drone will truly work in an alien environment. The team has been testing its flight systems in wind tunnel facilities at NASA's Langley Research Center.