Demonstration of high contrast with an obscured aperture with the WFIRST-AFTA shaped pupil coronagraph

The coronagraph instrument on the WFIRST-AFTA mission study has two coronagraphic architectures, shaped pupil and hybrid Lyot, which may be interchanged for use in different observing scenarios. Each architecture relies on newly-developed mask components to function in the presence of the AFTA aperture, and so both must be matured to a high technology readiness level (TRL) in advance of the mission. A series of milestones were set to track the development of the technologies required for the instrument; in this paper, we report on completion of WFIRST-AFTA Coronagraph Milestone 2—a narrowband ${10}^{-8}$ contrast test with static aberrations for the shaped pupil—and the plans for the upcoming broadband Coronagraph Milestone 5.