Design and status of the CASTOR mission

The CASTOR mission is a wide-field, nearly diffraction-limited, 1m-diameter space telescope that is under development by the Canadian Space Agency. The telescope is being optimized for wide-field imaging at UV/blue-optical wavelengths, but also features low- and medium-resolution spectroscopic capabilities covering the 150 to 400 nm region, as well as three precision photometers for observations of exoplanet transits. In this paper, we briefly describe the current design of the mission, including payload layout, instrument suite, bus, orbit and observing plans. A companion paper provides a short description of CASTOR’s science mission and capabilities within the international landscape.