AstroForge to Launch First Fully Autonomous Spacecraft in 2027
AstroForge plans to fly Autonomy-1 aboard Stoke Space's Nova Pathfinder rocket in early 2027, operating entirely without commands from mission control.
Key takeaways
- AstroForge announced Autonomy-1, an orbital mission scheduled for early 2027 designed to operate without any ground commands after separation.
- The mission will test Solo, an onboard intelligence system that runs alongside deterministic, physics-based flight software.
- Solo will first fly in non-operational shadow mode on the DeepSpace-2 mission before taking full control on Autonomy-1.
- Autonomy-1 will fly on the maiden orbital launch of Stoke Space's reusable Nova Pathfinder rocket and carry a NASA heliophysics instrument.
California-based asteroid-mining company AstroForge announced plans to launch the world's first fully autonomous spacecraft mission in early 2027. Named Autonomy-1, the orbital flight is designed to complete its entire mission profile after launch vehicle separation without receiving a single command from ground controllers, according to an announcement by AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich.
The mission will fly aboard the maiden launch of Stoke Space's reusable Nova Pathfinder rocket. By shifting operational decision-making directly onto the vehicle, AstroForge aims to eliminate the substantial labor and communication expenses required to operate robotic probes in deep space, as reported by Space.com.
How Solo Powers the Autonomous Spacecraft
Traditional space missions rely on teams of ground operators to analyze telemetry, troubleshoot anomalies, and transmit commands. In deep space, this approach requires high-demand terrestrial antenna networks and encounters substantial transmission delays. AstroForge stated that ground support and communications account for nearly one-third of its overall mission costs, creating an operational bottleneck as the company works to deploy fleets of mining spacecraft across the solar system.
To solve this, the company created Solo, an onboard software layer that coordinates spacecraft subsystems in real time. Solo operates on top of AstroForge's deterministic, physics-based flight software rather than replacing it. While underlying algorithms handle predictable vehicle dynamics, Solo analyzes telemetry at the source to identify off-nominal system states and select corrective actions, as detailed in AstroForge's mission announcement.
Because deep-space bandwidth restricts how much data can be downlinked to Earth, human controllers see only a fraction of vehicle telemetry. Solo operates with direct access to all raw onboard sensor data, enabling the system to evaluate spacecraft health and operational conditions without Earth-based intervention.
Testing Solo from Shadow Mode to Full Control
AstroForge is deploying the software through a phased flight qualification process. Solo will first fly later in 2026 on the DeepSpace-2 mission, which is scheduled to launch toward a near-Earth asteroid aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare carrying Intuitive Machines' third robotic lunar lander, according to Space.com.
During DeepSpace-2, Solo will operate strictly in "shadow mode." The model will ingest flight data and calculate decisions in real time, but the spacecraft will not execute those commands. Instead, engineers will evaluate the system's decisions against decisions generated by conventional software to assess performance in flight, according to reporting from Tech.news.am.
Autonomy-1 will mark the system's operational deployment. Once the spacecraft separates from Stoke Space's launch vehicle, communications will run strictly one-way. Autonomy-1 will downlink health status, scientific readings, and records of Solo's internal decisions to Earth for observation, but ground teams will transmit zero uplink commands, as outlined by Daily Galaxy.
In addition to flying the spacecraft, Solo will manage the operations of COMPASS (Compact Multi-Spectral Photometer for Space Science), a scientific heliophysics instrument provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Flight Heritage and Long-Term Asteroid Mining Plans
Founded in January 2022 and based in Huntington Beach, California, AstroForge aims to harvest platinum and other valuable minerals from asteroids in outer space, as noted by the Orange County Business Journal. However, its earliest flight demonstrations encountered operational hurdles.
In April 2023, the startup launched Brokkr-1, a prototype CubeSat aimed at testing refinery equipment in low Earth orbit, but the team was unable to activate the refining payload. In February 2025, AstroForge launched Odin on Intuitive Machines' IM-2 lunar mission to conduct an asteroid flyby. Mission controllers encountered communication problems after deployment and eventually lost the spacecraft, according to Space.com.
Over the last four years, AstroForge assembled extensive in-house testing infrastructure, including full-scale thermal testing, an anechoic RF test facility, thruster hot-fire stands, and hardware-in-the-loop simulation rigs. If Autonomy-1 succeeds aboard Stoke Space's first orbital rocket flight in early 2027, the autonomous operational architecture will serve as the template for future deep-space prospecting and extraction fleets.
Frequently asked questions
What is AstroForge's Autonomy-1 mission?
Autonomy-1 is a planned early 2027 orbital demonstration by AstroForge designed to operate entirely without commands from ground control after separation from its launch vehicle.
What is the Solo intelligence model?
Solo is an onboard software system developed by AstroForge that sits above deterministic, physics-based flight controls to monitor subsystems and make autonomous operational decisions in real time.
Which rocket will launch Autonomy-1?
Autonomy-1 is scheduled to launch in early 2027 on the maiden orbital flight of Nova Pathfinder, a reusable rocket developed by Stoke Space.
What scientific instruments will Autonomy-1 carry?
The spacecraft will host COMPASS (Compact Multi-Spectral Photometer for Space Science), a heliophysics instrument developed for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Sources
- 'Without a single command from the ground': Asteroid-mining company to launch world's 1st autonomous…Space · Sep 23, 2026
- Introducing Autonomy-1: The First Autonomous Space Mission, Powered by Solo - AstroForgeastroforge.com · Sep 21, 2026
- No Human Commands, No Remote Control: This Asteroid-Mining Company Prepares To Launch The World's First Spacecraft Designed To Fly On Its Owndailygalaxy.com · Sep 24, 2026
- In 2027, the first space mission that will receive no commands from Earth after launch will begintech.news.am · Sep 24, 2026
- HB-Based AstroForge Aims for Spacecraft AutonomyOrange County Business Journal · Sep 22, 2026
How this story was made: the newsroom picked it up from Reddit, gathered the full text of the sources above, and drafted it with AI assistance. Every factual claim was then checked against those sources before publishing (17 claims checked). Illustrations marked as AI-generated are not photographs. Spotted an error? Tell us.
Published September 27, 2026 at 08:17 UTC
