NASA delivered the NavCube3-mini payload on July 13 to Intuitive Machines for integration into Altus-1, the company’s first lunar relay satellite, marking an important milestone in the development of future lunar communications and navigation services. The lunar relays are designed to enable communications and navigation for astronauts and rovers operating at the agency’s future Moon Base. About half the size of a shoebox and weighing just 3.5 pounds, NavCube3-mini is a compact but powerful navigation
As NASA prepares for a sustained human presence on the Moon, missions will increasingly require spacecraft that can navigate and communicate without a direct connection to Earth. NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Navigation and Operations Technology Experiment, or CAPSTONE, validated and advanced these capabilities. Designed to test and validate technologies in lunar orbit, CAPSTONE launched
Listen to this audio excerpt from Peter Rossoni, Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System flight manager: Your browser does not support the audio element. As a child, Peter Rossoni watched the Apollo missions launch with his family. In April 2026, he became a part of NASA’s Artemis II mission, helping enable communications as astronauts journeyed