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History
 In 1977, a small group of engineers and scientists had a vision to create affordable infrared telescopes for DOD and government research agencies. SSG’s early contracts provided telescopes to the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory to study infrared space backgrounds from space platforms. Over the years the business expanded from IR telescopes into visible and UV instruments. In 1986, SSG expanded into the space mechanism business by providing a telescope and scanner for a DOD flight experiment. The scanner and electronics business has grown and many of our current programs include high precision mechanisms and flight electronics.
In October 1997, SSG moved their system engineering, design and integration, and test facilities to Wilmington. Today, SSG has grown to over 200 employees and full time contractors. SSG provides system engineering, design, fabrication, testing, and optics manufacturing to NASA, DOD, major aerospace firms, and several commercial customers.
SSG has delivered over 40 space and aircraft subsystems, covering the wavebands from the Ultraviolet to Longwave Infrared (LWIR). Materials used for the optics and structures include aluminum, beryllium, silicon carbide, glass, composites, and refractors. The optical designs contain both on-axis and off-axis elements, aspheric and spherical mirrors. Our designs have proven straylight rejection performance including flight proven contamination control design and mitigation procedures.
 In December 2001, with assistance from its
equity partner, Parthenon Capital, SSG purchased Tinsley Laboratories from ASML. Tinsley was founded in 1926 by Clayton Tinsley. Initial products sold were telescopes, mirrors, and mirror kits. Tinsley’s product line grew to selling binoculars to the Armed Forces and developing technology for manufacturing TV phosphor exposure aspheric lenses for color TV tube manufacturers. By 1970, Tinsley shifted the emphasis away from telescope manufacturing to precision optical components and systems. Today, Tinsley has become the established leader in the design and manufacture of precision optical components, assemblies, and sub-systems. CCOS (Computer controlled optical surfacing) provides highly accurate, deterministic aspheric polishing of optical components.
Biographies of Senior SSG/Tinsley Management
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SSG’s Mission Statement
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Brief history of SSG and Tinsley
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Overview of our R&D and Manufacturing facilities
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