Instruments aboard spacecraft are exposed to harsh environments and are expected to be highly reliable, providing full functionality over the entire mission time, which could last for more than a decade. Therefore, they are tested under space conditions and assembled in dust-free rooms by technicians in protective clothing.

IWF owns several test facilities and special infrastructure for the production of flight hardware. A high-performance computer helps the scientists to cope with the enormous data, which have to be analyzed for space missions.

Since 1982 IWF has been operating an SLR station at Lustbühel Observatory.