SwRI develops space instruments that help measure and quantify the unique characteristics of distant planets and objects in our solar system and beyond. Our scientists developed instruments and related avionics systems that have flown on over 50 commercial and government-related space missions, providing a basis for research that helps expand scientific understanding of the solar system. Our specialties include payload systems and design and fabrication of space and ground instruments.
For more than three decades, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been a recognized leader in space science research as well as in the development of spacecraft instrumentation, avionics and electronics for both government and industry. A traditional strength of the Space Science Department is the design and fabrication of instruments for the in-situ measurement of space plasmas, the dilute ionized gases that populate the immediate space environments of the Earth and other solar system bodies as well as interplanetary space.
