Universe Today
• Matthew Williams
NASA says its FALCON system successfully demonstrated autonomous spacecraft navigation in low Earth orbit during the Starling CubeSat mission. The system uses onboard cameras and catalogs of known objects to determine position without relying on GPS, a capability aimed at enabling more resilient spacecraft operations.
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NASA says its FALCON system successfully demonstrated autonomous spacecraft navigation in low Earth orbit during the Starling CubeSat mission. The system uses onboard cameras and catalogs of known objects to determine position without relying on GPS, a capability aimed at enabling more resilient spacecraft operations.
An early-stage NASA grant is supporting the concept of spherical “Aerobots” designed to navigate Titan’s caves, offering a potential approach to exploring environments inaccessible to conventional rovers. The proposed demonstration mission would build on the technology-validation model established by Mars’ Ingenuity helicopter.
Speaking to more than 8,000 people at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Aug. 3, 2026, the Artemis II crew thanked NASA and its contractors. The mission’s pilot highlighted the responsibility of manually flying Orion, saying he remained “blown away” by the trust placed in him.
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NASA has invited the Indian Space Research Organisation to collaborate on its planned Moon Base Mission, which aims to establish a permanent crewed outpost near the lunar south pole after 2032. The invitation marks a new phase in U.S.-India cooperation on human lunar exploration.
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Paragon Space Development Corp. has laid off 70 employees after NASA halted work on a module being developed for the lunar Gateway, underscoring the workforce and supplier impact of program-level changes. The company was a subcontractor on the affected module.
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A 26-kilogram radiation-shielding vest flown on a model human torso during NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I mission reduced exposure during simulated severe solar storms, a new study suggests. The result supports further development of wearable protection for astronauts on extended lunar and Mars missions.
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