Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a multidisciplinary research institution that plays a significant role in space exploration and national security. While not a space agency, LANL designs, builds, and analyzes data from instruments for space missions, contributing to over 200 missions since 1963. The lab focuses on developing innovative sensing systems for space-based applications, studying space environments, and monitoring international compliance with nuclear test ban treaties. LANL partners with organizations like NASA and focuses on areas like space weather, planetary exploration, and remote sensing.
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Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory jointly developed the Global Burst Detector payload family.
Project Rover built nuclear reactors at the Los Alamos Laboratory’s Pajarito Site and tested them at the Nevada Test Site.
Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory hold institutional expertise in reactor physics, fuel fabrication, and safety analysis for space nuclear power.
Redwire and Los Alamos National Laboratory successfully completed a demonstration of a new deployable aeroshell on November 19, 2025.
Los Alamos National Laboratory provided the payload and was responsible for integration for the demonstration.
NASA Ames Research Center assisted Redwire and Los Alamos National Laboratory with the November 19, 2025 deployable aeroshell demonstration.
Redwire and Los Alamos National Laboratory plan to continue collaborative efforts following the demonstration.
UP Aerospace completed its 23rd suborbital space flight at Spaceport America, carrying a Los Alamos National Laboratory payload to an apogee of roughly 72 miles on November 19, 2025.
The research on planetary defense was funded by NASA at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and included partnerships with the NNSA at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
The Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Swift mission in collaboration with Penn State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Northrop Grumman Space Systems.
Teams from Sandia and Los Alamos worked together for 12 years to design and qualify the new IIIF system.
The Global Burst Detection system was developed by Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.
The Global Burst Detection system has endured for more than 60 years at Sandia and Los Alamos Laboratories.
Over the next decade, Sandia and Los Alamos plan to deliver, integrate, and launch more IIIF Global Burst Detector systems.
Teams from Sandia, Los Alamos, and the U.S. Space Force calibrated the system in June.
Marc Kippen, program manager for Space Systems and Science at Los Alamos, emphasized the effort required to maintain uninterrupted national security space capability.
Sandia and Los Alamos design and produce the five subsystems of the Global Burst Detection system.
Collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory has been key to developing advanced detection systems.
In 2024, Sandia and Los Alamos delivered the first two flight systems for the IIIF Global Burst Detectors to Lockheed Martin.
ChemCam is jointly operated by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France.