The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U CubeSat designed to explore the upper atmospheres of short-period exoplanets via near-ultraviolet (2500 – 3300 Å) transmission spectroscopy, with an anticipated launch date of September 2021. The 4U science instrument comprises a Cassegrain telescope with a 20 × 8 cm primary mirror, a spectrograph, and a thermal-electrically cooled CCD detector. The spacecraft structure and a 1.5U XB1 avionics module are provided by Blue Canyon Technologies. CUTE’s novel and compact instrument design presents unique challenges to conducting component-level testing, alignment, instrument and spacecraft integration, calibration, and end-to-end performance testing. We provide a description of several custom test setups and procedures designed to characterize the spectrograph performance and its expected science return. We also outline the remainder of our integration and testing plan.
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