Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Founded in 1948, LASP employs 750+ scientists, engineers, and students dedicated to space science research in fields including solar physics, planetary atmospheres, dusty plasmas, geophysics, and space weather. The institute received over $1 billion in research revenue since 2013, predominantly from NASA contracts. LASP employs over 250 students and is the only academic institute to send spacecraft instruments to all 8 planets in the Solar System. LASP has also sent missions to Pluto, the Sun, and multiple planetary moons.

As of 2025, LASP has a yearly budget exceeding $200 million and manages or supports 26 active space missions.

History Founded in 1948 as the Upper Air Laboratory, the first scientific instruments built at LASP were launched into space after World War II using captured German V-2 rockets. In 1963, the University of Colorado received $791,500 from NASA for the construction of a 25,000 square-foot building to study "ultraviolet physics, solar ultraviolet-radiation data from rockets, and the testing of solar-rocket pointing-control mechanisms". LASP maintains a suborbital rocket program through periodic calibration instrument flights from White Sands Missile Range. It changed to its current name in 1965. LASP has historical ties to Ball Aerospace Corporation and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA).

The University of Colorado receives more NASA funding than any public university in the country, due in large part to LASP programs. Multiple companies have spun-off from research at LASP, including on electron beam dust mitigation for NASA.

Facilities LASP has two main facilities located in the University of Colorado Boulder Research Park: the LASP Space Technology Research Center (LSTR) and Space Science (SPSC). Two additional facilities - Astrophysical Research Lab (ARL) and Space Learning Lab (SLL/NPL) - are also part of LASP.

The facilities allow LASP to execute almost every aspect of space missions. Hardware facilities and cleanrooms allow for the construction of single instruments or entire spacecraft. A Mission Operations Center allows for the control of spacecraft data collection, and a large research staff analyzes the data for science research.

As part of the university, LASP has heavy student involvement in every aspect of its operations, including science, hardware design, spacecraft integration, and mission operations. Graduate students regularly lead instrument development under the supervision of professors and scientists at the institute. Notable student-led instruments include the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter on New Horizons and the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) as part of NASA's Explorers Program.

List of missions Launch End of Mission Instrument(s)/Experiment(s) Mission Status 1967 1967 Ultraviolet Photometer (UVP) Mariner 5 Complete 1969 1970 Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) Mariner 6 and 7 Complete 1969 1975 High-Resolution Ultraviolet Spectrometer (HR UVS); Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor (SEUVM) OSO-5 Complete 1971 1972 Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) Mariner 9 Complete 1973 1978 Ultraviolet Nitric-Oxide Experiment (UVNO) Explorer 51 Complete 1975 1976 Ultraviolet Nitric-Oxide Experiment (UVNO) Explorer 54 Complete 1975 1978 High-Resolution Ultraviolet Spectrometer (HR UVS); Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor (SEUVM) OSO-8 Complete 1977 — Photopolarimeter Voyager 1 Active 1977 — Photopolarimeter Voyager 2 Active 1978 1992 Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) Pioneer Venus Orbiter Complete 1981 1989 Mission operations Solar Mesosphere Explorer Complete 1986 1986 Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) STS-51-L; lost in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster Lost 1989 2003 Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EUV); Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) Galileo Complete 1991 2005 Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite Complete 1996 1996 High-Resolution Mapping Spectrometer (SVET) Mars 96 Lost 1996 1996 Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM-I) microgravity experiment STS-79 Complete 1996 2008 Toroidal Imaging Mass-Angle Spectrograph (TIMAS) Polar (satellite) Complete 1997 2017 Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) Cassini-Huygens Complete 1998 1998 Impactor Box Systems (COLLIDE) STS-90 Complete 1998 1998 Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM-II) microgravity experiment STS-89 Complete 1998 2003 Solar X-ray Photometer (SXP); Auroral Photometer (AP); Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) Student Nitric Oxide Explorer Complete 1999 2018 Mission operations QuikSCAT Complete 2001 2001 Impactor Box Systems (COLLIDE-2) STS-108 Complete 2001 — Solar EUV Experiment (SEE) TIMED (Johns Hopkins APL) Active 2003 2010 Mission operations ICESat Complete 2003 2003 Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM-III) microgravity experiment STS-107; lost in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster Lost 2003 2020 X-ray Ultraviolet Photometer System (XPS); Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE); Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM); Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM); Mission operations SORCE Complete 2004 2015 Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) MESSENGER Complete 2006 — Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (VBSDC) New Horizons Active 2007 2024 Cosmic Dust Experiment (CDE); Cloud Imaging and Particle Size Experiment (CIPS) Explorer 90 Complete 2007 — Digital Fields Board (DFB) THEMIS Active 2009 2018 Mission operations Kepler Space Telescope Complete 2010 — Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) Solar Dynamics Observatory; NASA Sounding Rocket Program Active 2011 2011 Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) Glory Lost 2012 2014 Relativistic Electron and Proton Telescope integrated little experiment (REPTile) CSSWE (3U SmallSat) Complete 2012 2019 Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT); Digital Fields Board (DFB) Van Allen Probes Complete 2013 2014 HyperSpectral Imager for Climate Science (HySICS) NASA high-altitude balloons Complete 2013 2014 Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) LADEE Complete 2013 2019 Total Solar Irradiance Calibration Transfer Experiment (TCTE) STPSat-3 Complete 2013 — Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS); Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor (EUVM); Langmuir Probe (LPW) MAVEN Active 2015 — Mission operations Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Active 2016 — Extreme ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) GOES-16 Active 2017 — Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM); Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) TSIS-1 on the International Space Station Active 2018 — Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk Instrument GOLD Active 2018 — Extreme ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) GOES-17 Active 2018 — Digital Fields Board (DFB) Parker Solar Probe Active 2018 2022 Compact Spectral Irradiance Monitor (CSIM) 6U SmallSat Complete 2020 — Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS); Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) Emirates Mars Mission Active 2020 — Reeldown Aerosol Cloud Humidity and Temperature Sensor (RACHuTS); Fiberoptic Laser Operated Temperature Sensor (FLOATS); LASP Particle Counter (LPC) Strateole-2 (20 CNES high-altitude balloons) Active 2021 — Near-ultraviolet (NUV) transmission spectrometer Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment Active 2021 — Mission operations IXPE Active 2022 — Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Experiment (DEUCE) NASA Sounding Rocket Program Active 2022 — Dual Aperture X-Ray Solar Spectrometer (DAXSS) INSPIRESat-1 Active 2022 — Extreme ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) GOES-18 Active 2022 — Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet (SISTINE) NASA Sounding Rocket Program Active 2022 — Compact Total Irradiance Monitor (CTIM) 6U SmallSat Active 2023 — Occultation Wave Limb Sounder (OWLS) INSPIRESat-3 Active 2023 — Relativistic Electron and Proton Telescope integrated little experiment (REPTile) Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment Active 2024 — Extreme ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) GOES-19 Active 2024 — Surface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) Europa Clipper Active 2025 — Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX) Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) Active 2026 — Ultraviolet telescope Supernova remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) (12U SmallSat) Planned 2026 — Dual Solar Position Sensor (SPS) Sun Coronal Ejection Tracker (SunCET) (6U SmallSat, Johns Hopkins APL) Planned 2026 — Acute Precipitating Electron Spectrometer (APES); Proton eLectron Advanced Sensor for M-I Coupling (PLASMIC); Ionization Gauge (IG); Cross Track Wind Sensor (CTWS); Rapid Active Plasma Sounder (RAPS) COUSIN Sounding Rocket Planned 2026 — 3-axis search coil antenna; 2-axis dipole antenna Climatology of Anthropogenic and Natural VLF wave Activity in Space (CANVAS) Planned 2026 — AXIS (Atmospheric X-ray Imaging Spectrometer) Atmosphere Effects of Precipitation through Energetic X-rays (AEPEX) (6U SmallSat) Planned 2026 — Far ultraviolet integral field spectrograph (IFS) Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Experiment (INFUSE) Sounding Rocket Planned 2026 — Chromosphere spectrograph Solar eruptioN Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) Sounding Rocket Planned 2026 — Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE) Artemis II Planned 2027 — Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM); Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor–2 (TSIS-2) (SmallSat) Planned

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

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