San Diego, Calif. — March 17, 2026
Quartus Engineering is excited to be able to announce its ongoing role in the development of the Lazuli Space Observatory, a 3-meter class space observatory within the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System. Lazuli will host a collection of three complementary instruments, including a wide-field optical imager, an integral field spectrograph, and a high-contrast coronograph for imaging of exoplanets and circumstellar environments. Lazuli aims to deliver a high-quality astrophysics observatory at a fraction of the cost and schedule of traditional flagship missions.
“We’re really proud to be collaborating on the Lazuli Space Observatory. Not only is it exciting to lend our engineering expertise to help develop one of the biggest and most advanced space telescopes ever, but we’re doing so on a schedule and budget much more aggressive than other telescopes of its kind,” said Trevor Owen, Quartus’ project lead for Lazuli. “This program has the potential to reshape our understanding of what it takes to create and launch a very large, very capable, custom space observatory.”
Quartus is working closely with the science and engineering teams at Schmidt Sciences to help lead the technical development of the observatory in the disciplines of optical, opto-mechanical, structural, thermal, STOP, jitter, electrical, and pointing/control. In addition to providing the program with expertise in these fields, Quartus’ agile approach enables rapid iteration of design and environments — critical to achieving the program’s ambitious timeline.
Together with other technical partners on the program, Quartus is both coordinating and executing modeling and simulation efforts to help ensure the observatory meets its demanding performance and launch requirements. “Quartus is working directly with the various subsystem teams to resolve their toughest challenges, while simultaneously analyzing the issue from a system-level perspective to ensure that solutions in one area don’t create new problems elsewhere. Building an observatory of this complexity requires careful coordination and a deliberate balancing act to bring it all together.”
About Quartus Engineering: Quartus Engineering Incorporated delivers advanced engineering analysis, design, prototyping, and high-value manufacturing solutions across aerospace, space systems, and other advanced technologies, partnering with customers to solve complex, multidisciplinary challenges from concept through deployment.
Contact: Alexander Cheff Halterman, Director of Technical Program Development