RTX Delivers Blue Canyon Satellites for NASA’s Groundbreaking Swarm Mission

RTX’s (NYSE: RTX) compact-satellite producer and mission services supplier, Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), has announced a triumphant launch and initial communication with CubeSats for the NASA Starling mission, a technological demonstration intended to validate the effectiveness of collaborative groups of spacecraft operating in an autonomous, synchronized manner or “swarm.”

BCT supplied four 6U CubeSats to NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology initiative, managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, under the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. The Starling mission is enhancing the readiness of various technologies for collaborative spacecraft groups by showcasing systems that facilitate multipoint scientific data collection by multiple small spacecraft navigating together. The six-month endeavor will specifically evaluate onboard swarm maneuver planning and execution, communication networks, relative navigation, and autonomous cooperation among satellites.

“We are continuously expanding the limits of what can be achieved,” stated John Carvo, Executive Director of CubeSats at BCT. “By supplying proven hardware for a demonstration of this nature, we’re consistently streamlining low-costs and rapid developments for small constellation initiatives.”

The satellites will be positioned in a nearly sun-synchronous, low-Earth orbit, with all four spacecraft actively participating in the experiment.

BCT delivered the inaugural satellite for the mission in 2021. Besides manufacturing the satellites, BCT is also offering operational support for the Starling mission, named after the bird renowned for flying in a synchronized or “swarm” formation. Efforts on this program were conducted in Lafayette, Colorado.