GoKawiilNASA's FALCON system lets Starling satellites navigate using other spacecraft, not GPS
NASA's Starling mission tested FALCON, a navigation system built with startup EraDrive that lets a spacecraft determine its own orbital position by observing nearby satellites and debris rather than relying on GPS signals. The system pairs EraDrive's Era-Core software with Starling's existing star tracker cameras and a catalog of known orbiting objects to calculate location autonomously.
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GPS signals grow weak or unavailable beyond Earth's immediate vicinity, so autonomous navigation tools like FALCON could be essential for lunar satellite swarms, deep-space missions, and future crewed exploration. The same technology also has near-term value for tracking space traffic and avoiding collisions in increasingly crowded orbits.
- FALCON lets satellites navigate using other objects in space instead of GPS.
- Built jointly by NASA and Stanford spinoff EraDrive, using existing star tracker cameras.
- Could support lunar missions, deep-space exploration, and collision avoidance.
Celestron NexStar 8SE Telescope — If NASA's FALCON experiment—navigating by spotting other satellites—has you looking up, the Celestron NexStar 8SE lets you do your own optical tracking from the backyard. Its computerized GoTo mount aligns on known stars and can follow satellites and planets across the sky, and the 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain optics pull in plenty of detail on the Moon where future swarms may one day fly.
See Celestron NexStar 8SE Telescope on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: sciencedaily.com, 2026-08-27
Published there as: “NASA just used satellites and debris to navigate without GPS”
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