Enabling groundbreaking missions
By Kerri B. Phillips|December 2024
The Guidance, Navigation and Control Technical Committee advances techniques, devices and systems for guiding and commanding flight vehicles.
It was a year of advances for guidance, navigation and control for space, missile and aircraft applications.
In October, SpaceX completed the fifth test flight of a Starship-Super Heavy. In an unprecedented feat, the Super Heavy booster navigated back to the launchpad and was caught by two mechanical arms as the engines shut down, bringing SpaceX another step closer to rapid reusability. The Starship upper stage splashed down in the Indian Ocean.
In April, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. joined Starlab Space, a joint venture of Airbus and Voyager Space of Colorado to develop and privately operate a station in low-Earth orbit. Starlab is among the potential successors to the International Space Station.
In October, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft was launched toward Jupiter’s moon Europa, which it is scheduled to reach in 2030. Also that month, the European Space Agency launched the Hera spacecraft, a follow up to NASA’s 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test, which impacted a spacecraft into a moonlet of the asteroid Didymos and altered its orbit. Hera will navigate to the double system and collect observations to help determine if such a kinetic impact is a feasible method for planetary defense.
There were several noteworthy activities in applying artificial intelligence. In April, Klepsydra Technologies of Switzerland announced an agreement to fly its AI models on Firefly Aerospace’s Elytra spacecraft to demonstrate onboard decision-making and autonomous navigation. During the flight, Klepsydra’s models “will process sensor data onboard,” then relay the spacecraft’s GNC information to Earth, according to a press release.
Also in April, the U.S. Air Force announced that AI agents had piloted the X-62A VISTA, a modified F-16 trainer, in a series of dogfighting exercises against a human-piloted F-16 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The goal of the flights, conducted under DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution program, was to train and test algorithms for eventual use with future uncrewed aircraft. Similarly, the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program continued pushing to rapidly design and deploy large numbers of autonomous uncrewed aircraft to team with crewed fighter aircraft squadrons as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance program. The Air Force in April selected California-based Anduril and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to further prototype and fly their drone designs.
In March, the Air Force conducted the final test flight of the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon. A spokesperson said that this test “focused on the ARRW’s end-to-end performance” and that “the Air Force gained valuable insights into the capabilities of this new, cutting-edge technology.” Also that month, Stratolaunch completed the first powered flight with a Talon-A, its reusable hypersonic test vehicle. Draper developed the GNC flight software for TA-1’s autonomous operation, one of the primary objectives for the flight.
Uncrewed aerial systems and counter-UAS concepts have exploded in use in both the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars. Both the use of drones and methods to counter them are undergoing rapid adaptation, with GPS spoofing to disrupt navigation and radio-frequency jamming to break communications links being reported. As C-UAS technologies continue to evolve, researchers will create new solutions to counter the counter.
In advanced air mobility news, Eve Air Mobility of Brazil in January selected Honeywell to develop guidance and navigation systems for its planned electric air taxi, scheduled to begin passenger service in 2026. Also in January, Xwing and AFWERX completed an autonomous logistics demonstration with a Cessna 208B turboprop, in which pilots monitored the flight with Xwing’s Superpilot software. In June, air taxi developer Joby Aviation of California acquired the autonomy division of Xwing for future uncrewed operations of its aircraft.
Contributor: Omkar Halbe
