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AI in space: how autonomy is reshaping the final frontier. In January 2026, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool analyzed nearly 100 million Hubble Space Telescope images and identified more than 800 cosmic anomalies that had remained hidden for potentially 35 years - completing the search in just two and a half days. That kind of discovery marks a turning point for AI in space. The technology is becoming an active layer of mission support - helping spacecraft navigate, satellites monitor their own health, crews receive support, and scientists uncover patterns that were previously out of reach. This article explores where AI is already transforming space operations, what opportunities and risks it creates for the industry, and what these changes demand from the engineers responsible for building safe, secure, and mission-ready systems. Spacecraft autonomy and deep space exploration. In deep-space missions, autonomy does not replace human expertise - it extends it. As spacecraft operate farther from Earth, AI can help teams manage distance, delay, and uncertainty by enabling systems to respond more intelligently between ground commands. Autonomous navigation. NASA's Perseverance rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2021, is already demonstrating that shift. Its driving is now 88% autonomous, using onboard computer vision to identify hazards and navigate without constant ground input. Earlier this year, it went further, completing the first Mars drives planned end-to-end by generative AI, with no human route planners creating the waypoints. That same shift is shaping other missions, too. The European Space Agency's (ESA's) Hera spacecraft is designed to autonomously navigate around the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system, using visual tracking, lidar-based altimeter readings, inertial sensors, and star-tracker measurements to understand its position and operate safely in a complex, low-gravity environment. Astronaut assistants. As missions move farther from Earth, crews will need AI support inside the spacecraft, too. Communication delays and blackouts can make real-time medical or operational help from Earth difficult when immediate guidance is needed. Google and NASA's Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA) addresses that challenge directly. The multimodal AI system is trained on spaceflight medical literature to help crews diagnose and treat symptoms without physician contact. AI-enabled crew support is also advancing through robotics. On the International Space Station (ISS), Stanford researchers used machine learning to improve motion planning for Astrobee, NASA's free-flying robotic assistant, reducing autonomous movement planning time by 50-60%. Spacecraft health. Mega-constellations make manual satellite health monitoring impossible at scale. With the satellite count projected to grow from roughly 15,000 today to 100,000 by 2030, operators need AI systems that can analyze telemetry, flag anomalies, predict component failures, and assess fuel margins before issues disrupt operations. In April, The Aerospace Corporation and Google Public Sector announced a proof-of-concept AI tool for constellation operations designed to handle the high-velocity demands of modern space domain awareness while helping on-call engineers to "focus their expertise where it matters most," according to Kevin Bell, senior vice president of Aerospace's Engineering and Technology Group. Space-Based data processing and discovery. A growing data bottleneck. As the number of satellites in orbit increases, space missions are producing more data than traditional ground-based workflows can process quickly. NASA's Earth observation archive has already crossed 100 petabytes (PB) and is projected to reach 320 PB by 2030, while Europe's Copernicus program holds more than 78 PB. At that scale, the challenge is not just collecting data - it is moving, filtering, and interpreting it fast enough to support time-sensitive use cases like disaster response and large-scale scientific discovery. AI at the edge. Prithvi predicted burn scar impacts from the Gifford Fire near Los Angeles (August 17, 2025). (Photo/Courtesy: NASA) One solution is edge computing: By running edge AI directly on satellites and connecting it with cloud-to-edge workflows on the ground, space systems can process data closer to where it is collected instead of routing everything back to Earth for analysis. In May, researchers from Adelaide University, ESA's Φ-lab, and Thales Alenia Space deployed NASA and IBM's Prithvi geospatial AI foundation model into orbit, validating it aboard the ISS and the Kanyini satellite. By supporting tasks like flood mapping, cloud detection, burn scar identification, and disaster monitoring onboard, Prithvi helps move satellite data from observation to actionable intelligence in near-real time. Cosmic discovery. AI is also changing how scientists search the universe. AnomalyMatch, an AI-powered discovery tool designed to identify unusual objects in astronomical image archives, used an unsupervised neural network to scan the Hubble Legacy Archive and surface more than 800 previously undocumented objects - including gravitational lenses, galaxy mergers, and unclassified anomalies - that manual review could not have found at that scale. As missions like Euclid, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope generate even larger datasets, AI-assisted discovery will become essential to the science pipeline. NASA's ExoMiner++ model is applying a similar approach to Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data, using AI to sift through brightness measurements and help scientists identify promising planet candidates more efficiently than manual review alone. The new frontier: orbital data centers. As demand for AI processing grows, companies are beginning to look at orbit as a potential answer to the power, cooling, and scaling limits facing terrestrial data centers. In January, SpaceX filed plans with the FCC for up to one million orbital data center satellites operating between 500 km and 2,000 km. The proposed architecture would rely on solar power, radiative cooling, and high-bandwidth optical links through Starlink to support AI workloads in orbit. SpaceX has framed orbital data centers to meet accelerating AI compute demand, with projections of up to 100 gigawatts of annual orbital compute additions if Starship becomes fully reusable at scale. The concept is still highly experimental. Other organizations, including ESA-backed initiatives, Axiom Space, Starcloud, and Google's Project Suncatcher, are exploring related ideas, but major barriers remain around radiation, latency, debris, servicing, cost, and commercial viability. Still, the direction is significant: What was once a speculative space concept is now being evaluated as a potential response to the power, cooling, and scale constraints facing data centers on Earth. Governance and cybersecurity. Autonomous spacecraft, orbital data centers, and AI-enabled satellite operations can improve speed and resilience, but they also introduce new risks around system access, decision authority, accountability, and trust. The answer is not to avoid AI, but to deploy it responsibly - with secure software practices, defined decision boundaries, decision logging, risk-based safety assessments, and clear human oversight. For organizations building mission-critical space systems, partners like Performance can help bring the engineering discipline, cybersecurity focus, and high-assurance practices needed to use AI safely and effectively. What comes next. The space economy reached $613 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035. Realizing that growth will require AI systems that can operate reliably in mission-critical environments, where failure carries technical, financial, and operational consequences. Success will depend on more than AI adoption - it will depend on engineering workflows that can move faster while maintaining the discipline aerospace and defense (A&D) programs require. Performance develops mission-critical software for commercial aviation, space, and defense programs. Its AI-first workflows are built with governance and guardrails from the start, combining elite engineering talent with AI-assisted development at scale to deliver secure, certifiable systems faster - without compromising assurance. Ready to move at the speed of AI while maintaining the rigor your program demands? Performance Software Corporation 25500 N Norterra Pkwy Suite 300 Phoenix, Arizona 85085 +1 623-780-1517

Aerospace advances space technology with restartable solid rocket motor concept. Infusion of Nanosecond Pulsed Plasma Discharge into solid rocket motors may offer throttleable and restartable capabilities. May 26, 2026 Since the 1940s, traditional solid rocket motors have been commonly designed to be non-restartable. However, as space becomes increasingly congested, it is increasingly important to explore propulsion technologies that allow increased flexibility over traditional approaches as we adapt to the rapidly evolving space environment. Increased flexibility will enable spacecraft to more effectively engage in multi-phase missions, orbital maneuvers, and deep-space course corrections. Experts at The Aerospace Corporation are collaborating with the University of Southern California (USC) and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to apply Nanosecond Pulsed Plasma Discharge (NPPD) to overcome the single-use limitation of traditional solid rocket motors. The science behind NPPD's application to propulsion. NPPD is a type of low-temperature plasma created by very short, high-voltage electrical pulses (typically less than 100 nanoseconds) that has demonstrated applications in combustion enhancement. Traditional chemical spacecraft thrusters rely on catalytic decomposition or combustion to generate thrust. Ongoing efforts are investigating whether NPPD can augment these conventional mechanisms. "This advancement will greatly increase the maneuverability and capabilities of our satellites to support our government and commercial partners," said Alejandro L. Briseno, project lead and senior scientist in the Microelectronics Technology Department at Aerospace. "By leveraging ionic liquid polymers, we have created a fuel-efficient system that taps into unprecedented potential impacting mission longevity, adaptability, and sustainability. The ionic liquid polymer combines the thermal stability of ionic liquids with the mechanical resilience of polymers, allowing the propellant to remain stable and electrochemically active across a broad temperature range," said Briseno. The Aerospace team - Briseno, Andrew Cortopassi, Armando Perezselsky, and Caleb Medchill - designed a proof-of-concept propulsion device incorporating NPPD technology. The device uses short plasma pulses that require minimal energy while enabling electronic control. Its fuel-versatile design allows customers to tailor propellants to specific mission requirements. By creating a thermally resilient, restartable solid-fuel propulsion system without the need for pressure vessels, the team is advancing capabilities for deep-space exploration. Potential mission applications. The simple construction of the device reduces the technology's overhead power, making it suitable for longer distance missions. Additionally, its compact form should allow it to integrate into a wide range of space platforms, from CubeSats to large spacecraft. If the design and technology advancements are successfully realized, the device could be used on multiple mission types. This effort demonstrates a compelling new approach to propulsion, where electrically controlled plasma-assisted solid rocket motors show strong potential to enable more flexible, efficient, and adaptable space systems. Early results are encouraging and point toward a meaningful advance in how solid propulsion can be controlled and applied in future missions. The work is currently in the experimental phase in the laboratory environment.

Did China sell iran the spy satellite it used against U.S. Bases? No matter what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is claiming to Donald Trump ahead of the latter's visit to China, the CCP has most certainly been selling many weapons and a considerable amount of military equipment to the terrorist Iranian regime. And why would we be surprised by that? Both the CCP and the Iranian regime are genocidal, and they both hate the United States. A Financial Times report covered by Just the News revealed that leaked Iranian documents show that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Aerospace Corp bought Chinese company Earth Eye Co.'s TEE-01B satellite, launched in 2024. The Iranian regime subsequently used the satellite to spy on important U.S. military sites, including capturing satellite images that the regime used to conduct drone and missile strikes in March. Among the targets was reportedly Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where the regime hit U.S. aircraft. While President Trump announced Wednesday that the CCP agreed not to send the Iranian regime weapons, the CCP has not officially confirmed this. Nor could we really trust the CCP even if it did so, as it lies every time it makes a statement or promise. We cannot forget that the CCP has funded U.S. schools, bribed our politicians and media, infiltrated our government institutions and businesses, set up secretive police stations on U.S. land, and built up a thriving "birth tourism" industry. If you don't know what "birth tourism" is, it is what could allow a million Chinese Communists to vote in our elections by 2030, if the U.S. Supreme Court makes the wrong decision on "birthright citizenship." Because the USA now has the unusual and anti-constitutional system of counting every individual born in the U.S. as a citizen, even if his mother literally just walked or flew across our border, Chinese Communist Party members will pay tens of thousands of dollars to fly to U.S. territories and have babies here through shady birthing centers. Matt Tye and Winston Sterzel, China experts and YouTubers who had to flee China after exposing CCP corruption and who now host The China Show, did a deep dive on this in an April 3 episode. Sterzel said, "When they [pregnant Chinese women] fly here to do the birth tourism, they don't speak English. They're met by Chinese-speaking people, who take them to a house where they just do Chinese traditional stuff. They don't actually get to explore America or do anything. They're just here to give birth, and they fly straight back. So now the children that are now American citizens, they are not exposed to America, they grow up in the Chinese educational system with all the propaganda, they get [brainwashed] to worship the party, that America is your enemy, and all of that kind of stuff, but now they have the citizenship." Tye added, "it's an actual, like, asymmetric goal of the CCP." In other words, the CCP is at war with us, even if it is not firing on us, and part of that is weaponizing our own ill-judged laws against us. In conclusion, the CCP might be the Iranian regime's friend, but it is certainly not America's friend. Editor's Note: Do you enjoy PJ Media's conservative reporting on the woke left and international events? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership. Catherine Salgado is a contributor for PJ Media. She also writes for The Rogue Review, Media Research Center, and her Substack Pro Deo et Libertate. She received the Andrew Breitbart MVP award for August 2021 from The Rogue Review for her journalism.