NASA Calibration Instrument Installed on International Space Station

NASA’s Calibration Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory Pathfinder (CLARREO Pathfinder) instrument was installed onto the International Space Station’s ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-1 platform on May 22. This mounting site on the International Space Station is a standardized external port location that provides a physical instrument interface and critical operating resources for remote science operations.  
 
The CLARREO Pathfinder instrument is a hyperspectral imaging spectrometer capable of measuring reflected sunlight by Earth and the Moon at a level 5 to 10 times more accurate than existing sensors.
 
The CLARREO Pathfinder mission launched May 15 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as part of SpaceX’s 34th commercial resupply services mission for the agency. The Dragon spacecraft arrived at the orbiting outpost May 17. Extraction from the Dragon spacecraft trunk and installation to the International Space Station was performed by a robotic arm. 
 
After installation, the instrument began the first phase of its commissioning period. Starting with launch lock deployment, the mission operations team unlocked three locks that held CLARREO Pathfinder’s pointing system in place during launch. Once unlocked, the instrument’s first motions of the pointing system also were tested. The CLARREO Pathfinder instrument has a two-axis pointing system that allows the instrument to point at the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Over the next several months, CLARREO Pathfinder will undergo science and instrument checks to test viability for calibration of other satellites in government and commercial fleets.