Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) with Bundeswehr, steep and sciencentric

On September 23/24, 2025, the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) of the two 1-m telescopes for the Bundeswehr Space Surveillance Project took place at Baader Planetarium. Representatives of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) as well as our partners steep GmbH (general contractor) and our partner sciencentric AG accompanied the tests in our production and integration facilities in Mammendorf.

The purpose was to verify whether the compatibility of the equipment and the software in factory-ready condition met the customer’s requirements. All checkpoints were successfully passed, and both instruments fully convinced. There were no hardware complaints whatsoever. Only the sky test will be postponed to the SAT (Site Acceptance Test), as unfortunately the weather did not permit any observations during the week.

A brief look back

In early July 2025, we installed two 6.15 m Baader slit domes (Advanced) at the Meßstetten military training area; at the end of July, construction progress was celebrated with all project partners at the topping-out ceremony. With today’s Factory Acceptance Test, the two telescopes – a PW1000 Nasmyth Astrograph f/6 and a PF1000 Folded Prime Focus f/2.25 from PlaneWave Instruments – are now also prepared for delivery.

Next steps

Following the FAT, the dismantling of the instruments, transport, installation and integration of the telescopes in Meßstetten will take place. This will be followed by calibration, full robotic integration via Webservatory as well as system tests with the Space Situational Awareness Center in Uedem. Trial operation is scheduled to start in January 2026; the official handover to the Bundeswehr is still planned for May 2026.

We thank all parties involved for the constructive cooperation and look forward to the next project stage – the commissioning of the overall system on site.