Successfully validates cost-efficient AI-enabled sensing and communications technologies to enable future advanced space missions

Momentus Inc., a U.S. commercial space company specializing in satellite technology, space transportation, and in-orbit services, today announced the successful completion of a Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) demonstration by its Vigoride-7 Orbital Service Vehicle (OSV) utilizing low-cost commercial components for its sensor suite in a mission with a NASA satellite. The RPO demonstration showcased the Company’s capabilities to integrate and operate this sensor suite, which produces the high-quality imagery necessary to support autonomous RPO in any lighting environment.

“This demonstration highlights Momentus’ ability to integrate and validate innovative commercial technologies, unlocking new capabilities for in-space transportation, servicing, and logistics,” said John Rood, Momentus Chief Executive Officer. “We believe lower cost autonomous operations conducted at greater scale have significant potential to play a key role in supporting in-space operations like manufacturing, servicing, and habitation in the growing space economy.”

The demonstration was undertaken under the Company’s contract with SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force. This $1.86 million contract was previously awarded to Momentus by SpaceWERX as part of its Space Maneuver Challenge competition. The effort included the on-orbit checkout and operation of a suite of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors retrofitted and space-qualified for use in the low Earth orbit (LEO) environment. Importantly, the suite demonstrated commercially viable sensing architecture for autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations.

During the mission, Momentus deployed NASA’s R5-S10 6U CubeSat from Vigoride-7. Following deployment and autonomous spacecraft checkout, the NASA satellite performed navigation maneuvers in the vicinity of Vigoride-7, enabling the collection of optical, infrared, and LiDAR data at varying distances and under multiple lighting conditions.

The demonstration successfully achieved both its primary and extended mission objectives. Data collected by the sensor suite tracked and characterized the NASA satellite throughout the operation.

R5-S10 is funded and managed by NASA’s Small Spacecraft and Distributed Systems (SSDS) within the agency’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate (RTMD), along with additional support provided by Johnson Space Center’s Engineering Directorate. SSDS is based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

Through a previously announced collaboration with Solstar Space, this mission successfully demonstrated the use of Solstar’s Deke communications terminal. Deke maintained communications between the two spacecraft and supported the transfer and download of imagery collected during the demonstration. The successful performance of the communications system highlights the growing role of commercial space networking capabilities in supporting advanced on-orbit operations.

With the success of this demonstration, Momentus continues to expand its growing portfolio of on-orbit technology and is a further demonstration that the Vigoride platform is an effective vehicle for testing and deploying next-generation space infrastructure technologies. By validating commercially derived autonomous operations technologies on orbit, the Company is positioning itself to pursue future government and commercial opportunities in emerging space infrastructure markets while expanding the long-term revenue potential of the Vigoride platform.

Momentus launched Vigoride-7 aboard the SpaceX Transporter-16 rideshare mission in March 2026 and has now successfully demonstrated critical technologies supporting future in-space logistics and servicing architectures.

The Company’s upcoming fully booked Vigoride-8 mission is scheduled to fly in 2027 carrying two NASA payloads.

Source: Business Wire