UC Berkeley engineers assemble COSI telescope detector on July 8, 2026

UC Berkeley engineers and managers observed the final integration step of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) detector assembly on July 8, 2026, as the instrument was carefully lifted from its workbench. The four silver‑finished panels atop the detector box conceal the flex circuits that route signals from the array of gamma‑ray detectors to the readout electronics, a critical component for the mission’s planned observations of high‑energy astrophysical phenomena. The assembly, built under a collaborative effort between the university’s Space Sciences Laboratory and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, marks the completion of the instrument’s mechanical integration phase ahead of environmental testing.

The COSI payload, slated for launch aboard a forthcoming space‑flight mission, will employ advanced Compton scattering techniques to map the sky in the 0.2–5 MeV energy range, probing the origins of cosmic explosions, nucleosynthesis, and black‑hole jets. With the detector now fully assembled and undergoing qualification tests, the project moves toward its scheduled launch window in early 2027, positioning the instrument to join a new generation of gamma‑ray observatories. Successful deployment will expand the scientific community’s capability to study the most energetic processes in the universe.