NASA's Starling spacecraft accomplish major mission objective

NASA's Starling mission, a team of four CubeSats in low-Earth orbit on a mission to test out key technologies for the future of deep space missions, has accomplished a significant objective. The tiny CubeSats have succeeded in an early space navigation test called the Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment (StarFOX).

The mission team used ground-based software to demonstrate StarFOX's ability to autonomously differentiate the background field of stars and other orbiting spacecraft from fellow members of the Starling swarm.

"The spacecraft captured one photo every minute, and despite inconsistencies in illumination and minimal relative motion, the software was able to use the angular positions of the other Starling satellites within those images to estimate their orbits accurately with respect to GPS measurements captured during the test," NASA said in a statement.

The next mission goal will be focused on demonstrating this software in orbit with similar results, autonomously correcting orbit predictions over time as each photo provides more data about the trajectory of spacecraft in the swarm.

🎵 Hello, is it me you're looking for? 🎵Our Starling spacecraft accomplished a major mission objective! They autonomously differentiated the background field of stars and other orbiting spacecraft from fellow members of the Starling swarm.Learn how: https://t.co/0GLOS5kTfg pic.twitter.com/lo8wheZNyG

— NASA Ames (@NASAAmes) January 18, 2024

For the unversed, NASA's Starling is on a six-month mission to test technologies that let spacecraft operate in a synchronized manner without resources from the ground. More specifically, the mission will test four key capabilities:

• network communications between the spacecraft
• maintaining relative navigation and understanding each satellite's position
• autonomous swarm reconfiguration and maintenance to ensure the swarm can adjust when moving as a group
• distributed science autonomy to prove the ability to adjust experiment activities on their own

After concluding its primary mission, Starling will move on to a collaboration phase with SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation. The key focus of this partnership will be to test advanced space traffic management techniques between autonomous spacecraft operated by different organizations.