NASA just used satellites and debris to navigate without GPS

NASA has successfully tested a system that allows satellites to navigate without GPS by using other spacecraft and debris as landmarks in orbit. In just three days, FALCON also improved the known orbits of more than 200 space objects completely autonomously. NASA just used satellites and debris to navigate without GPS.

The technology, called FALCON (Fast Autonomous Lost-in-space Catalog-based Optical Navigation), aims to help spacecraft operate with greater independence. Such capabilities could become increasingly important as NASA pursues missions farther from Earth, including lunar satellite swarms, distributed science missions, and future human exploration. Navigating Space Without GPS Satellites near Earth commonly rely on GPS for navigation, but those signals may be weak, unreliable, or unavailable around the Moon and in deep space.

FALCON offers an alternative by allowing spacecraft to determine where they are using what they can observe around them. The FALCON payload is a joint flight experiment developed by NASA and EraDrive, a startup that emerged from Stanford University. The system combines EraDrive’s Era-Core flight software and embedded algorithms with Starling’s cameras and an onboard catalog of known satellites.