Apr 2, 2025 | Missions
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE™) is expanding its critical experiments to support technology needs in cislunar space.
WESTMINSTER, CO, 2 April, 2025 – Advanced Space is expanding the CAPSTONE™ program in collaboration with NASA to host a new suite of experiments. These onboard experiments will further demonstrate spacecraft autonomy, cislunar navigation and interoperable standards-based communications technologies. These CAPSTONE™ experiments will continue to mature and de-risk critical technologies and operations in this challenging domain. This additional experimentation phase will support NASA technology development for identified shortfalls to increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) in these flight and ground technologies to support future flight programs. These specific experiments will leverage the lessons learned from this highly successful mission to help enable our country’s goal to lead lunar, mars, and deep-space exploration. (more…)
Nov 7, 2024 | Missions
Advanced Space is studying artificial intelligence / machine learning algorithms to improve trusted autonomous operations of spacecraft for the full life cycle of a mission.
WESTMINSTER, CO, November 7, 2024 — Space assets are almost completely operated from the ground. The United States Space Force (USSF) needs its spacecraft to make more autonomous decisions in an increasingly contested space environment for long periods of time without operator intervention. The Space Force has recently funded Advanced Space on a Phase I SBIR project to investigate artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) algorithms that can guide satellites to proper, self-preserving actions in the absence of human intervention. Advanced Space will leverage its recent spacecraft operations AI/ML work for government customers (NASA, IARPA, AFRL). (more…)
Oct 28, 2024 | Missions
The feasibility study will investigate modular mission architectures that facilitate matching launch vehicles, transfer stage capabilities, primary payload, and mission destination to enable rapid mission formulation for SmallSat planetary explorers.
WESTMINSTER, CO, 28 October 2024 – NASA awarded Advanced Space a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project to develop mission architectures and requirements for customizing a low-cost rocket transfer stage that will deliver small spacecraft into nontraditional orbits and provide PNT and communications relay services for the deployed small spacecraft. The project, which will be managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will define modular mission architectures and ConOps that match launch vehicle and transfer stage capabilities to the deployment of a primary payload to its destination orbit. (more…)
Oct 7, 2024 | CAPSTONE Mission
The award prolongs the CAPSTONE™ mission. CAPSTONE™ is currently flying at the Moon and recently marked its 100th orbit in the near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO).
WESTMINSTER, CO, 6 October 2024 – Advanced Space’s pioneering Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE™) satellite completed its original 18-month mission for NASA this spring and has been awarded an extension of the mission program. The mission extension includes a base period to continue nominal mission operations, further demonstrate Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS™) experiments, and perform feasibility analysis for high-priority experiments in support of NASA’s technology needs. The CAPSTONE™ mission has been operating at the Moon for 670+ days performing critical navigation and operations experiments in cislunar space. (more…)
Sep 11, 2024 | Machine Learning & AI, Missions
WESTMINSTER, CO, 11 September, 2024—Advanced Space, a leading space tech solutions company, was awarded a contract from General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) in support of Phase 1 of the Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) for the U.S. Space Force’s (USSF), Space Systems Command (SSC). The EST program will increase the mission effectiveness of future Department of Defense (DoD) platforms by providing a mesh laser communication network for resilient, high-capacity communications paths for spacecraft in beyond Low Earth Orbit (bLEO) regimes at crosslink ranges up to 80,000 km. Over the seven-month contract period of performance, GA-EMS will engineer and develop an Optical Communication Terminal (OCT) design leading to a Phase 1 preliminary design review. (more…)
Aug 15, 2024 | CAPSTONE Mission, Machine Learning & AI
WESTMINSTER, CO, 15 August 2024 – The CAPSTONE satellite after completing its primary navigation and Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) mission continues to be an on-orbit test platform to experiment with critical technologies needed for future cislunar missions. Advanced Space is using CAPSTONE to test multiple autonomous capabilities. The first experiments performed on CAPSTONE tested the functionality of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS™) software—these efforts are still ongoing. Following CAPS, Advanced Space uplinked a SigmaZero machine learning model, which was developed for IARPA to classify anomalies with spacecraft navigation. The latest experiments Advanced Space has performed on CAPSTONE validated Advanced Space’s Neural Networks for Enhanced Planning (NNEP). NNEP is a Machine Learning (ML) application that calculates and validates optimal maneuvers without humans in the loop. It’s one of the key applications in Advanced Space’s Autopilot suite of on-orbit tools to enable autonomous operations. (more…)
