SSTL to supply flight platform for privately funded Lazuli telescope

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) will provide the spacecraft platform for Lazuli, a privately funded space telescope led by Schmidt Sciences. The platform will handle attitude control, propulsion and communications for a 3‑meter primary mirror telescope slated to launch by mid‑2028 as part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System, which includes three ground‑based observatories. Lazuli will use off‑the‑shelf components with heritage spaceflight tech and final assembly near a Florida launch site. The project’s overall cost is expected in the hundreds of millions, about one‑tenth the cost of a NASA flagship astrophysics mission.