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NASA’s Commercial Partners Make Progress on Low Earth Orbit Projects
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By NASA
NASA researchers Matt Gregory, right, Arwa Awiess, center, and Andrew Guion, left, discuss live flight data being ingested at the Mission Visualization and Research Control Center (MVRCC) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley on Aug. 21, 2025.NASA/ Brandon Torres-Navarrete NASA and its partners recently tested a tool for remotely piloted operations that could enable operators to transport people and goods more efficiently within urban areas.
The team’s goal is to ensure that when these remotely piloted aircraft – including electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) – take to the skies, air traffic controllers won’t be overburdened by increased flight operations and safety is maintained across the national airspace.
On Aug. 21, NASA’s Air Traffic Management eXploration Project (ATM-X) assisted Wisk Aero when they flew a Bell 206 helicopter in Hollister, California. The purpose of the flight test was to evaluate and fine-tune a ground-based radar developed by Collins Aerospace. The radar, which provides aircraft location data, could be used during future remotely piloted operations to detect and avoid other aircraft in the vicinity. NASA, Wisk, and Collins researchers also used the flight to test data exchange capabilities across different geographic locations between the groups, a critical capability for future remotely piloted operators in a shared airspace. This work builds on a November 2024 flight test NASA performed with Reliable Robotics and Collins Aerospace.
Initial analysis of the August testing of Collins’ ground-based radar actively and accurately surveilled the airspace during the aircraft’s flight test. The Collins radar system also successfully transmitted these data to NASA’s Mission Visualization Research Command Center lab at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. NASA, Wisk, and Collins will further analyze the flight data to better understand the radar’s performance and data exchange capabilities for future remotely piloted flight tests. This testing is a part of ATM-X’s remotely piloted testing campaign, designed to identify the infrastructure and technologies needed for the Federal Aviation Administration to safely integrate drones and air taxis into the airspace, bringing the movement of people and goods off the ground, and into the sky.
Remotely piloted eVTOL aircraft could bridge the gap for urban communities by offering a more affordable and accessible method of transportation and delivery services in congested, highly-populated areas.
NASA and Wisk will continue to collaborate on emerging eVTOL technologies to safely integrate advanced aircraft, into the national airspace. Together, the teams will gather data on eVTOL performance and characteristics during a flight test of a helicopter, which will act as a “surrogate” simulating an eVTOL flight. This work will mark another critical step towards better connecting communities across the globe.
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:43 An essential part of ESA’s Space Safety programme is dedicated to getting and keeping Earth’s orbits clean from space debris. In the long run, the Agency aspires to stimulate a true circular economy in space, minimising the impact of spaceflight on Earth and its resources where possible. As part of ESA’s Zero Debris approach, new ESA missions will be designed for safe operations and disposal to stop the creation of new debris by 2030.
ESA has now taken another important step on the road towards sustainability in space with its first in-orbit servicing mission RISE, planned for launch in 2029.
RISE is a commercial in-orbit servicing mission that will demonstrate that it can safely rendezvous and dock to a geostationary client satellite, extending the life of geostationary satellites that need support with attitude and orbit control, but are otherwise in working order.
After verifying that it meets all the performance standards in a first demonstration, prime contractor, operator and co-founder D-Orbit will start commercial life extension services for geostationary satellites.
ESA’s RISE mission marks a promising step towards enhancing in-orbit services and technologies, such as refuelling, refurbishment and assembling – all essential elements for creating a circular economy in space.
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