// ORBITAL LOGISTICS AND PROPULSION TERM
Formation Flying
Formation flying is when multiple spacecraft fly together in a precise, coordinated arrangement, maintaining specific distances and orientations relative to each other.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
Formation flying is the precise, coordinated control of multiple spacecraft to maintain specific relative positions and orientations, enabling distributed sensing, interferometry, or synthetic aperture missions that a single satellite cannot achieve.
BACKGROUND
Bigelow Aerospace was an American space design and manufacturing company which ceased operations in 2020. It was an aeronautics and outer space technology company which manufactured and developed expandable space station modules. Bigelow Aerospace was founded by Robert Bigelow in 1998, and was based in North Las Vegas, Nevada. It was funded in large part by the profit Bigelow gained through his ownership of the hotel chain Budget Suites of America.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- Coordinated flight
- Swarm control
- Distributed spacecraft
- Relative navigation
USAGE NOTE
Formation flying enables advanced scientific missions requiring spatially separated observations.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to Formation Flying.
The U.S. space agency that has developed and flown multiple satellite formation missions, such as the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, and continues to research advanced formation control algorithms for future Earth science and astrophysics observatories.
The European counterpart to NASA, which pioneered formation flying with its Cluster II mission and is actively demonstrating next-generation precision formation flying technology with its Proba-3 mission.
A major aerospace and defense company that developed the Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) for on-orbit satellite servicing, a process that requires extremely precise proximity operations and station-keeping, which are core technologies of formation flying.
A leading European satellite manufacturer that built the satellites for the GRACE-FO mission, which precisely tracks the distance between two spacecraft to measure Earth's gravity field, a key application of two-craft formation flying.
A subsidiary of RTX specializing in small satellites and spacecraft components. They provide the advanced attitude control systems and avionics necessary for small satellites to perform precise maneuvering for formation flying and swarm missions like NASA's Starling project.
A major European aerospace manufacturer involved in building satellite constellations and developing technologies for on-orbit servicing and space exploration, which depend on advanced guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) for formation flight.
A venture-backed startup developing the Otter satellite servicing vehicle, which is designed to perform rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) with other spacecraft, a core application of close-formation flying.
A leading academic research lab focusing on the guidance, navigation, and control algorithms required for satellite formation flying, autonomous rendezvous, and proximity operations. Their research directly informs and enables operational missions.