NASA Tests First-of-Its-Kind Spacecraft that Navigates without GPS

NASA tests first-of-its-kind spacecraft that navigates without GPS

NASA’s Starling mission has demonstrated a first-of-its-kind navigation system that lets a spacecraft determine its position in orbit by tracking other objects in space instead of relying on GPS. The system, called FALCON, uses cameras already aboard the spacecraft to identify other objects in orbit. It then compares those observations with a catalog of known satellites and orbital debris to work out where Starling is located. The technology cou…

NASA Demonstrates GPS-Free Autonomous Spacecraft Navigation System on Starling Swarm – SatNews

On August 17, 2026, NASA announced the successful flight demonstration of the Fast Autonomous Lost-in-space Catalog-based Optical Navigation (FALCON) system aboard the agency’s Starling CubeSat mission in low Earth orbit. […]