autoNGC CAPSTONE Flight Experiment Completion

The NASA/GSFC-developed autonomy flight software, autoNGC (autonomous Navigation, Guidance and Control), is scheduled for flight testing on the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) extended mission during fiscal year 2026. The flight test will advance autoNGC to TRL 7 for autonomous onboard navigation and guidance capabilities in the cislunar environment, with particular emphasis on the lunar Gateway near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). A successful flight test would position autoNGC for infusion into future missions including moon-to-mars and enabling space situational awareness for national space security in cislunar space.

The autoNGC flight experiments on CAPSTONE aim to demonstrate several new critical autonomous position, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities needed for cislunar and moon-to-mars initiatives and for space autonomy that is necessary in order to achieve less reliance on oversubscribed and expensive ground assets:

• Onboard navigation through filtering of near-real-time DSN two-way radiometric measurements (range and Doppler)
• Onboard navigation through maneuvers with attitude and accelerometer data
• Onboard processing of celestial and limb-based optical images from the spacecraft's star tracker and subsequent onboard filtering of the resulting bearing and range measurements
• Onboard integration and filtering of one-way forward radiometric measurements formed from the spacecraft Iris radio and chip-scale atomic clock
• Onboard maneuver planning for station keeping based on onboard navigation knowledge 

Through these flight experiments, two key Goddard innovations within the autoNGC application suite—Goddard Enhanced Onboard Navigation System (GEONS) and cFS Goddard Image Analysis and Navigation Tool (cGIANT)—will also reach TRL 7 for cislunar space operations. 

autoNGC delivers Earth-independent navigation autonomy that enhances individual spacecraft missions and enables distributed, automated, and intelligent architectures, including constellation management. It provides the PNT capabilities necessary for autonomous operations and communications supporting distributed measurements of the sun and heliosphere for advanced space weather missions as well as exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Successful completion of the autoNGC flight experiment on CAPSTONE will significantly accelerate the adoption of this critical technology and increase the probability of infusion into future mission architectures. 

autoNGC's architecture supports multiple mission types and orbital regimes. Its implementation using the core Flight System (cFS) facilitates seamless integration with other existing software in the cFS environment, enabling testing of various capabilities including asset self-coordination and computing in communication-limited environments, as well as concepts for immediate mission infusion.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.