Precision monolithic telescope assemblies for space: design advantages, demonstrated performance, and scaling production for flight systems

The Monolithic Telescope technology, developed at LLNL and now being commercialized by Starris Space Systems of Optimax, offers an innovative optical architecture for compact, highly stable space payloads. Made from a single piece of fused silica with primary and secondary surfaces polished on opposite sides, the Monolith removes alignment structures while maintaining diffraction-limited performance. Compared to Cassegrain designs, it provides reduced length and mass, excellent optical quality, and strong resilience to vibration, shock, and thermal variation, enabling high-performance imaging on smaller spacecraft with lower SWaP. Several configurations have been space-qualified or flown, demonstrating maturity and manufacturability. This talk reviews the transition from LLNL research to producible systems, including design and manufacturing methods, test results, and efforts to extend the technology to new mission classes and optical configurations.