NASA used an Alta-X drone to evaluate a navigation payload designed to help spacecraft find safer landing areas and divert from hazards during a simulated lunar descent over California.
The Aug. 27 flight took place at Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards, California; NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is nearby. The flight used a NASA guidance, navigation and control payload called Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE).
SPLICE used light-detection readings and other sensor information to build digital elevation maps and assess potential landing zones. NASA says the system can redirect a vehicle if its chosen area is unsafe, but the agency did not say whether the drone changed course during this test. It reported no test-specific numerical landing-accuracy result.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center developed the payload. Armstrong specialists integrated it with the drone and conducted checks in June and July covering communications between systems, data handling, telemetry and command responses.
The payload combines sensors, avionics and algorithms for use on the Moon, Mars, icy worlds and other destinations. One component, Terrain Relative Navigation, compares images taken during descent with maps loaded beforehand to estimate a spacecraft’s position. NASA says the component is intended to automate landmark identification, a task Apollo astronauts performed during lunar landings.
NASA project manager Davis Adams said the flight was “the culmination of almost a decade of work for the SPLICE project.” The agency said the test raised the system’s technology readiness level, but did not give a numerical rating. NASA also cites earlier flight tests in 2019 and 2020 that examined descent-related performance and precision-landing sensors.
NASA says unnamed companies are assessing SPLICE for precision landings and possible autonomous surface mobility. It also says landers planned for upcoming Moon Base missions are expected to draw on data from systems such as SPLICE, without specifying that those vehicles will carry the payload. NASA plans to add SPLICE to its software catalog in fall 2026.
