Taras, Adam K.Gordon Robertson, J.Carter, JoshCrous, FredCourtney-Barrer, BenjaminMcGinness, GraceIreland, MichaelTuthill, Peter2025-05-232025-05-2397815106751550277-786Xhttp://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85205598953&partnerID=8YFLogxKhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/733752743The Asgard instrument suite proposed for the ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) brings with it a new generation of instruments for spectroscopy and nulling. Asgard will enable investigations such as measurement of direct stellar masses for Galactic archaeology and direct detection of giant exoplanets to probe formation models using the first nulling interferometer in the southern hemisphere. We present the design and implementation of the Astralis-built Heimdallr, the beam combiner for fringe tracking and stellar interferometry in K band, as well as Solarstein, a novel implementation of a 4-beam telescope simulator for alignment and calibration. In this update, we verify that the Heimdallr design is sufficient to perform diffraction-limited beam combination. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Solarstein presents an interface comparable to the VLTI with co-phased, equal intensity beams, enabling alignment and calibration for all Asgard instruments. In doing so, we share techniques for aligning and implementing large instruments in bulk optics.We acknowledge support from Astralis - Australia's optical astronomy instrumentation Consortium - through the Australian Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Program. This work used the SA and ANU nodes of the NCRIS-enabled Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure Funding (LIEF) grant LE220100126.enPublisher Copyright: © 2024 SPIE.Asgardhigh angular resolutionhigh contrast imaginginstrumentationVLTI202410.1117/12.301923685205598953