Aeroastro Inc. received of a contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate to continue development work of a new miniature star tracker, the company announced. The development of the Fast Angular Rate Miniature Star Tracker is being funded through the Air Force’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

The instrument is being based on a Miniature Star Tracker being developed by Aeroastro and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. Prototype hardware for that system is undergoing testing.

The objective of both programs is to develop a lower cost, low mass, all-optical star tracker, which are used for navigating in space and keeping satellite properly aligned.