The two-year project will investigate modular mission architectures that facilitate communication services for spacecraft traveling to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Westminster, CO (July 8, 2025) NASA has awarded Advanced Space a follow-on Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract to develop design reference missions (DRMs) for Communication, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (CPNT) capabilities compatible with NASA’s LunaNet framework. The project, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, focuses on developing mission concepts for a standards-based, interoperable Lunar and Martian CPNT relay network. Advanced Space has partnered with Firefly Aerospace on this project, using Firefly’s Elytra orbital vehicle as a transfer stage for this relay network. Elytra provides responsive on-orbit mobility and servicing across cislunar space.
The Phase I effort was used to develop a mission-planning framework to design suitable DRMs and analyze the necessary changes to provide CPNT relay services for spacecraft in cislunar space. As the deep space economy expands, accessible CPNT services are required to mitigate the increasing demand on NASA’s Deep Space Network. The Phase II SBIR will further support a CPNT relay network to ensure future missions, which fly out of line of sight or beyond the effective range of Earth-based communication systems, can transmit critical data back to Earth.
“The Phase II SBIR builds on what we learned from our CAPSTONE mission, which proved we can successfully navigate and operate in the complex orbital environment around the Moon,” said Brad Cheetham, President and CEO of Advanced Space. “This new effort takes that experience even further— advancing technologies that will enable reliable communication and navigation for future missions and help build the foundation for sustained lunar exploration and a growing cislunar economy.”
Using non-traditional orbits, Firefly’s Elytra orbital vehicles will be optimized to provide CPNT relay services for complex orbital environments in support of LunaNet. NASA’s LunaNet project is focused on developing a lunar standards-based, interoperable communications relay network for industry, academia, and international partners to use alongside NASA.
“We’re proud to collaborate with Advanced Space and support NASA on the ongoing development of cislunar communications infrastructure,” said Chris Clark, Vice President of Spacecraft at Firefly Aerospace. “Building on the success of our first Blue Ghost mission, Firefly is ramping up for our next two missions to the Moon that will each deploy an Elytra vehicle in lunar orbit in addition to Blue Ghost landers on the lunar surface. We’ll be well-positioned to provide data relay services for sustained operations anywhere on the Moon.”