A particularly important autonomy breakthrough from this week came from NASA’s Starling swarm mission, reported August 17.
NASA demonstrated a system allowing spacecraft to determine their own orbital position by observing objects in space rather than relying on GPS or another external navigation network. The Starling satellites used onboard star-tracking observations both for self-orbit determination and to help update catalogs of other space objects.
Why it matters: This is a foundational technology for resilient autonomous operations beyond Earth orbit. Future satellites operating around the Moon, Mars or in contested environments where GPS isn’t available could navigate much more independently.
It also has major national-security implications: GPS-independent spacecraft could be considerably more resilient in a denied or degraded space environment.
