AstroForge Plans 2027 Solo AI Spacecraft Flight After $56 Million Bet on Autonomy
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 22
AstroForge Plans 2027 Solo AI Spacecraft Flight After $56 Million Bet on Autonomy
2 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 22
Summary
AstroForge said its in-house “Solo” control stack will fly in shadow mode on DeepSpace-2 by end-2026, ahead of a fully autonomous 2027 mission on Stoke Space’s first rocket.
Solo combines traditional control software with transformer-based models trained on about 2,500 spacecraft sensors to handle tasks such as anomaly detection, navigation recovery and subsystem troubleshooting onboard.
Odin’s 2025 deep-space communications failure pushed the company toward autonomy, with CEO Matthew Gialich weighing AI against building a five-dish global ground network he said would cost about $200 million.
NASA-heavy operations are out of reach for startups—OSIRIS-REx used 100 operators per eight-hour shift—and AstroForge says onboard intelligence could reduce dependence on scarce deep-space antenna time.
The approach remains risky because most spacecraft still rely on conventional control algorithms; AstroForge’s first two prototypes suffered anomalies, and neural-network control in orbit has only recently begun to emerge.