New York: NASA and the Italian Space Agency have made history by successfully acquiring and tracking Earth-based navigation signals on the Moon for the first time. On March 3, the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) demonstrated that signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can be received and tracked on the lunar surface, paving the way for future space exploration.
The LuGRE payload, delivered by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander on March 2, marked a major leap in space navigation. Shortly after landing, operators at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center initiated scientific operations, monitoring whether the receiver could acquire and track signals from two major GNSS constellations—GPS and Galileo. At 2 a.m. EST on March 3, LuGRE successfully achieved a navigation fix, approximately 225,000 miles from Earth.
“On Earth, we use GNSS signals to navigate everything from smartphones to airplanes. Now, LuGRE has proven that these signals can be tracked on the Moon, a milestone that could revolutionize lunar and deep-space navigation,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program.
With this achievement, future missions—including NASA’s Artemis program—could utilize GNSS signals to determine position, velocity, and time autonomously, reducing reliance on Earth-based tracking stations. The success of LuGRE marks a critical step in developing advanced navigation systems for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The record-setting experiment will continue for 14 days, collecting near-continuous data to further test GNSS capabilities on the Moon. LuGRE has already broken previous GNSS altitude records, surpassing NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission by acquiring signals at 209,900 miles from Earth on January 21. By February 20, the payload set a new record in lunar orbit at 243,000 miles away. This milestone indicates that spacecraft operating in cislunar space—the region between Earth and the Moon—can also rely on GNSS signals for navigation.
Traditionally, NASA tracks spacecraft using a combination of onboard sensors and signals from ground-based stations. LuGRE’s success demonstrates that autonomous GNSS-based navigation is viable even at lunar distances, offering a promising alternative for future space missions.
The LuGRE payload was developed through a collaboration between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Italian Space Agency, industry partner Qascom, and Politecnico di Torino. The project received funding and oversight from NASA’s SCaN Program and was one of 10 technology demonstrations selected for delivery to the Moon under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
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