NEO Surveyor Project Passes Preliminary Design Review

The NEO Surveyor Project recently passed the Project’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR), a major milestone in the NASA mission lifecycle. NASA’s review board, consisting of senior subject matter experts in relevant disciplines assembled from the scientific and industry community, convened over 3 days: Sept 20-22, 2022.

Successfully passing the PDR milestone means the projects is at a maturity level required by NASA with respect to:

• Design of the NEO Surveyor observatory and all its subsystems
• Associated procurements, processes, plans and ground support infrastructure for the entire mission
• Mitigation approaches for technical, programmatic, and cost risks

Next milestone: A Key Decision Point C (KDP-C) event, currently to be held before the end of 2022, at which NASA will decide whether to authorize NEO Surveyor to move from Phase B (“Mission Formulation”) to Phase C (“Mission Implementation”).