What Happened
Advancing Earth Observation With Autonomous Systems
Loft Orbital is working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to test the use of artificial intelligence on spacecraft for improved Earth science monitoring. The partnership, announced on June 23, aims to automate the process of identifying features to be observed in greater detail using AI models trained on a large corpus of data. The tests, which started this month, are part of a NASA-funded project called Federated Autonomous Measurement, or FAME, and are expected to continue in 2027 and 2028. According to Paul Lasserre, general manager for AI at Loft Orbital, the project has the potential to revolutionize Earth observation by enabling real-time insights and autonomy. This development was first reported by SpaceNews.