Momentus demonstrates AI-enabled sensor suite in NASA satellite RPO test
Momentus
Momentus says its Vigoride-7 vehicle used a low-cost AI sensor suite to track a NASA satellite in an on-orbit rendezvous test.
what happened
Momentus said Sept. 29 that its Vigoride-7 Orbital Service Vehicle completed a Rendezvous and Proximity Operations demonstration under a $1.86 million SpaceWERX contract, deploying NASA's R5-S10 CubeSat and then using a sensor suite of commercial optical, infrared and LiDAR components with onboard edge computing to autonomously track the satellite across varying distances and lighting conditions. Momentus said the mission met both its primary and extended objectives.
why it matters
A validated low-cost sensing stack for autonomous proximity operations lowers the hardware cost of satellite servicing, life-extension and debris-removal missions; Momentus says it will fold the architecture into future Vigoride vehicles, a step other in-space-servicing providers competing on cost will be watching.
for who
In-space servicing and satellite-life-extension providers
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- Momentus
- Category
- product
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-29
- Published
- 2026-09-29 22:51 UTC