Canadensys Aerospace will design and build an instrument suite for the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) flagship ILO-1 mission.
The ILOA has been working for over a decade to make this mission happen. In 2013 they announced that Moon Express would carry the first privately-funded telescope in space. That never happened.
Fast forward to 2022 and Canadensys did deliver a payload for the ILOA destined for the moon. The ILOA ILO-X payload was part of the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission which did a “soft landing” and ended up on its side in 2024. The ILO-X payload was a dual-imaging instrument.
The ILO-1 mission is currently scheduled for 2027 and will be deployed at the lunar south pole.
Steve Durst, Director of ILOA, stated “Following Canadensys’ successful design and build of our precursor ILO-X observatory, which landed on the Moon in 2024, we are pleased now to select Canadensys to design and build the instrument suite for our flagship ILO-1 mission, for observation and communication, including Space Calendar, from the Moon.”
Christian Sallaberger, President & CEO of Canadensys Aerospace, added “We are honoured and humbled to be selected by ILOA for this work and to play our role in making the visionary ILO-1 Observatory a reality. ILOA is doing fantastic work, and our entire team is enthusiastic to keep working with our friends at ILOA.”