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Lt. Gen. Schiess discusses critical role of CIC, JCO commercial capabilities at 40th Space SymposiumBy Space Force
During the Space Foundation’s 40th Space Symposium, U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, U.S. Space Forces – Space commander and Combined Joint Force Space Component Commander, participated in a one-on-one discussion with U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. (Ret.) David Buck.
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By NASA
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) is loaded into the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in this photo from March 20, 2025. There, the spacecraft will undergo testing such as dramatic temperature changes to simulate the harsh environment of space.
The IMAP mission is a modern-day celestial cartographer that will map the solar system by studying the heliosphere, a giant bubble created by the Sun’s solar wind that surrounds our solar system and protects it from harmful interstellar radiation. The IMAP mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, no earlier than September 2025.
Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Starling swarm’s extended mission tested advanced autonomous maneuvering capabilities.NASA/Daniel Rutter As missions to low Earth orbit become more frequent, space traffic coordination remains a key element to efficiently operating in space. Different satellite operators using autonomous systems need to operate together and manage increasing workloads. NASA’s Starling spacecraft swarm recently tested a coordination with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, demonstrating a potential solution to enhance space traffic coordination.
Led by the Small Spacecraft Technology program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, Starling originally set out to demonstrate autonomous planning and execution of orbital maneuvers with the mission’s four small spacecraft. After achieving its primary objectives, the Starling mission expanded to become Starling 1.5, an experiment to demonstrate maneuvers between the Starling swarm and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, which also maneuver autonomously.
Coordination in Low Earth Orbit
Current space traffic coordination systems screen trajectories of spacecraft and objects in space and alert operators on the ground of potential conjunctions, which occur when two objects exceed an operator’s tolerance for a close approach along their orbital paths. Spacecraft operators can request notification at a range of probabilities, often anywhere from a 1 in 10,000 likelihood of a collision to 1 in 1,000,000 or lower.
Conjunction mitigation between satellite operators requires manual coordination through calls or emails on the ground. An operator may receive a notification for a number of reasons including recently maneuvering their satellite, nearby space debris, or if another satellite adjusts its orbit.
Once an operator is aware of a potential conjunction, they must work together with other operators to reduce the probability of a collision. This can result in time-consuming calls or emails between ground operations teams with different approaches to safe operations. It also means maneuvers may require several days to plan and implement. This timeline can be challenging for missions that require quick adjustments to capture important data.
“Occasionally, we’ll do a maneuver that we find out wasn’t necessary if we could have waited before making a decision. Sometimes you can’t wait three days to reposition and observe. Being able to react within a few hours can make new satellite observations possible,” said Nathan Benz, project manager of Starling 1.5 at NASA Ames.
Improving Coordination for Autonomous Maneuvering
The first step in improving coordination was to develop a reliable way to signal maneuver responsibility between operators. “Usually, SpaceX takes the responsibility to move out of the way when another operator shares their predicted trajectory information,” said Benz.
SpaceX and NASA collaborated to design a conjunction screening service, which SpaceX then implemented. Satellite operators can submit trajectories and receive conjunction data quickly, then accept responsibility to maneuver away from a potential conjunction.
“For this experiment, NASA’s Starling accepted responsibility to move using the screening service, successfully tested our system’s performance, then autonomously planned and executed the maneuver for the NASA Starling satellite, resolving a close approach with a Starlink satellite,” said Benz.
Through NASA’s Starling 1.5 experiment, the agency helped validate SpaceX’s Starlink screening service. The Office of Space Commerce within the U.S. Department of Commerce also worked with SpaceX to understand and assess the Starlink screening service.
Quicker Response to Changes on Earth
The time it takes to plan maneuvers in today’s orbital traffic environment limits the number of satellites a human operator can manage and their ability to collect data or serve customers.
“A fully automated system that is flexible and adaptable between satellite constellations is ideal for an environment of multiple satellite operators, all of whom have differing criteria for mitigating collision risks,” said Lauri Newman, program officer for NASA’s Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
Reducing the time necessary to plan maneuvers could open up a new class of missions, where quick responses to changes in space or on Earth’s surface are possible. Satellites capable of making quicker movements could adjust their orbital position to capture a natural disaster from above, or respond to one swarm member’s interesting observations, moving to provide a more thorough look.
“With improved access and use of low Earth orbit and the necessity to provide a more advanced space traffic coordination system, Starling 1.5 is providing critical data. Starling 1.5 is the result of a successful partnership between NASA, the Department of Commerce, and SpaceX, maturing technology to solve such challenges,” said Roger Hunter, program manager of the Small Spacecraft Technology program. “We look forward to the sustained impact of the Starling technologies as they continue demonstrating advancements in spacecraft coordination, cooperation, and autonomy.”
NASA Ames leads the Starling projects. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate funds and manages the Starling mission.
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Last Updated Mar 26, 2025 LocationAmes Research Center Related Terms
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By Space Force
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman visited Air Forces Southern (AFSOUTH) headquarters Feb. 27, reinforcing the increasing role of space-based capabilities in the Western Hemisphere.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Equipped with state-of-the-art technology to test and evaluate communication, navigation, and surveillance systems NASA’s Pilatus PC-12 performs touch-and-go maneuvers over a runway at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California on Sept. 23, 2024. Researchers will use the data to understand Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) signal loss scenarios for air taxi flights in urban areas. To prepare for ADS-B test flights pilots and crew from NASA Armstrong and NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, ran a series of familiarization flights. These flights included several approach and landings, with an emphasis on avionics, medium altitude air-work with steep turns, slow flight and stall demonstrations.NASA/Steve Freeman As air taxis, drones, and other innovative aircraft enter U.S. airspace, systems that communicate an aircraft’s location will be critical to ensure air traffic safety.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires aircraft to communicate their locations to other aircraft and air traffic control in real time using an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system. NASA is currently evaluating an ADS-B system’s ability to prevent collisions in a simulated urban environment. Using NASA’s Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, researchers are investigating how these systems could handle the demands of air taxis flying at low altitudes through cities.
When operating in urban areas, one particular challenge for ADS-B systems is consistent signal coverage. Like losing cell-phone signal, air taxis flying through densely populated areas may have trouble maintaining ADS-B signals due to distance or interference. If that happens, those vehicles become less visible to air traffic control and other aircraft in the area, increasing the likelihood of collisions.
NASA pilot Kurt Blankenship maps out flight plans during a pre-flight brief. Pilots, crew, and researchers from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California and NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are briefed on the flight plan to gather Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast signal data between the aircraft and ping-Stations on the ground at NASA Armstrong. These flights are the first cross-center research activity with the Pilatus-PC-12 at NASA Armstrong.NASA/Steve Freeman To simulate the conditions of an urban flight area and better understand signal loss patterns, NASA researchers established a test zone at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Sept. 23 and 24, 2024.
Flying in the agency’s Pilatus PC-12 in a grid pattern over four ADS-B stations, researchers collected data on signal coverage from multiple ground locations and equipment configurations. Researchers were able to pinpoint where signal dropouts occurred from the strategically placed ground stations in connection to the plane’s altitude and distance from the stations. This data will inform future placement of additional ground stations to enhance signal boosting coverage.
“Like all antennas, those used for ADS-B signal reception do not have a constant pattern,” said Brad Snelling, vehicle test team chief engineer for NASA’s Air Mobility Pathfinders project. “There are certain areas where the terrain will block ADS-B signals and depending on the type of antenna and location characteristics, there are also flight elevation angles where reception can cause signal dropouts,” Snelling said. “This would mean we need to place additional ground stations at multiple locations to boost the signal for future test flights. We can use the test results to help us configure the equipment to reduce signal loss when we conduct future air taxi flight tests.”
Working in the Mobile Operations Facility at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, NASA Advanced Air Mobility researcher Dennis Iannicca adjusts a control board to capture Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data during test flights. The data will be used to understand ADS-B signal loss scenarios for air taxi flights in urban areas.NASA/Steve Freeman The September flights at NASA Armstrong built upon earlier tests of ADS-B in different environments. In June, researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland flew the Pilatus PC-12 and found a consistent ADS-B signal between the aircraft and communications antennas mounted on the roof of the center’s Aerospace Communications Facility. Data from these flights helped researchers plan out the recent tests at NASA Armstrong. In December 2020, test flights performed under NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign used an OH-58C Kiowa helicopter and ground-based ADS-B stations at NASA Armstrong to collect baseline signal information.
NASA’s research in ADS-B signals and other communication, navigation, and surveillance systems will help revolutionize U.S. air transportation. Air Mobility Pathfinders researchers will evaluate the data from the three separate flight tests to understand the different signal transmission conditions and equipment needed for air taxis and drones to safely operate in the National Air Space. NASA will use the results of this research to design infrastructure to support future air taxi communication, navigation, and surveillance research and to develop new ADS-B-like concepts for uncrewed aircraft systems.
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Last Updated Jan 23, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactLaura Mitchelllaura.a.mitchell@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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