NASA’s Starling mission plans to test critical swarm technologies in space using a quartet of 6U CubeSats. Showcasing their ability to autonomously fly together, the CubeSats will perform an orbital dance in low Earth orbit. Positioned approximately 355 miles above Earth, the spacecraft will be spaced around 40 miles apart. Demonstrating their capacity to track each other’s positions and trajectory accurately is the goal. A step towards developing cost-effective and scalable distributed spacecraft missions is the Starling mission. It is crucial for autonomous operation for swarms operating at considerable distances from Earth. Owing to communication time delays and potential disruptions, … Continue reading CubeSats Showcase Autonomous Flight in NASA’s Starling Mission: Orbital Dance