Commercial deep-space mission operator ExLabs has selected CUS-GNC’s SpacePilot onboard autonomy software to pilot its deep-space mission to the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, scheduled to launch in April 2028.
When announcing the autonomous software selection, ExLabs said the partnership with CUS-GNC will strengthen the company’s ability to operate “at extreme distances from Earth,” where controlling spacecraft remotely becomes impractical due to communication delays, severely limiting the ability to perform ground-based interventions.
“This pioneering mission will validate ExLabs’ advanced spacecraft technology and serve as a platform for multiple payloads from international and commercial collaborators,” the company’s website explains.
“This collaboration with ExLabs on the Apophis mission is truly exciting,” added Simone Chesi, Founder of CUS-GNC. “It is a mission that pushes the boundaries of commercial space.”
SpacePilot Autonomous Software to Brave ‘Dynamic’ Environment of Deep Space
According to ExLabs, the Apophis mission, scheduled to launch in April 2028, will intercept the Eifel Towed-sized asteroid at its closest approach to Earth around a year later, on Friday the 13th, April 2029.
In that same statement, the company noted that the Apophis mission is intentionally timed to coincide with the asteroid’s close Earth flyby, “creating a rare opportunity to validate advanced autonomy technologies while expanding commercial participation in planetary exploration.”
During its mission, the spacecraft will try to uncover data on the asteroid’s structure, composition, and gravitational effects. Notably, this deep-space interception will take place at a distance of over 100 million kilometers from Earth, in an environment the company described as “dynamic and largely uncharacterized.”
“Operating more than 100 million kilometers from Earth in a largely unknown and constantly evolving environment demands autonomy that is not only intelligent, but flight-proven,” ExLabs Chief Technology Officer Dalibor Djuran said.
As for the launch, the company has continued to surpass critical flight-readiness milestones, a process that will continue up until the spacecraft is moved onto the launch platform. The latest milestone is the selection of SpacePilot as the mission’s autonomous piloting software that will navigate this challenging environment with very little assistance from ground mission operators.
Adapting to Real-Time Environmental Changes Without Ground Intervention
Although ExLabs evaluated several options, the selection of the CUS_GNC SpacePilot software was partly due to the company’s strong reputation. According to ExLabs, the company’s flagship product, SpacePilot, is a “flight-proven onboard autonomy platform designed to enable resilient, low-latency spacecraft operations across a wide range of mission environments.”
“Announcing the use of SpacePilot onboard autonomy allows us to demonstrate an AI-driven GNC approach that goes beyond standard architectures and has already been proven in orbit,” Chesi said.
For example, SpacePilot can perceive environmental changes, make autonomous onboard decisions to adapt to them, and execute maneuvers in deep space without the intervention or oversight of ground operators.
“CUS-GNC’s SpacePilot is differentiated by its ability to close the loop onboard, adapt to uncertainty in real time, and significantly reduce reliance on Earth-based intervention,” Djuran explained. “That capability is foundational to how we scale deep-space missions beyond one-off demonstrations.”
The most critical benefits of SpacePilot for the Apophis mission include overall mission resilience, reduced response times, and the unprecedented ability for ground-based operators to manage the mission with smaller teams and lower latency constraints.
“By integrating SpacePilot into its flight architecture, ExLabs aims to reduce operational risk, lower mission-operations burden, and enable responsive, low-touch spacecraft behavior that would be difficult or impossible using traditional ground-dependent control loops,” the company explained.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.