Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems at Illinois (LASSI)

LASSI supports students, faculty, and other customers utilizing small satellite resources designed, developed, and tested at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Michael F. Lembeck, Ph.D., a Professor of Practice in the Aerospace Engineering Department, is Director of the Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems at Illinois (LASSI). Dr. Lembeck has led or worked on multiple government and commercial spaceflight programs, including JPL’s Galileo Jupiter Orbiter, Space Industries, Inc.’s Wake Shield Facility, Orbital Sciences’ OrbView/Warfighter commercial remote sensing program, NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration, and the Boeing commercial crew program. The laboratory is equipped with a Clean Room, Thermal-Vacuum Chamber, Vacuum Oven, Sun Simulator, Earth Orbital Magnetic Simulator, and a range of mechanical and electrical diagnostic equipment. Multiple forms of rapid prototyping, design, and simulation capabilities are also provided. In the next two years, LASSI will expand into new laboratory space to be built as an extension to Talbot Laboratory.