NASA Tests SPLICE Navigation System on Alta-X Drone

NASA tested the Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) guidance, navigation, and control payload on an Alta-X drone at Rogers Dry Lake near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Aug. 27, 2026.

During the test, the SPLICE payload used an advanced guidance system to map the terrain and assess potential landing areas. If the system determines the targeted landing area is unsafe, the system diverts the drone to a safer location. The system generates high-resolution digital elevation maps from light-detection and sensor data.

Researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston developed the SPLICE payload and partnered with specialists at NASA Armstrong to integrate, test, and fly it aboard the Alta-X drone in June and July. Those tests verified communications, data handling, telemetry, and command-control performance between the SPLICE payload and the drone to prepare for a full-scale test at Voyager Technologies in Mojave, California, later this month.

“This flight test is the culmination of almost a decade of work, for the SPLICE project,” said Davis Adams, NASA project manager. “This flight raised the technology readiness level, priming it for integration into future robotic and crewed lunar flights. Validation of the guidance and navigation systems are applicable to terrestrial, lunar, and Martian descent and landing missions.”

“We are coordinating with industry regarding the usage of the guidance system once the system is available in the NASA software catalog, currently planned for this fall,” Adams said. “Some of the companies also are evaluating the system’s navigation capabilities for precision landing applications, as well as potential extensions for autonomous surface mobility.”

NASA’s Flight Opportunities project, based at NASA Armstrong, enabled flight testing of the SPLICE project early in its development. Flight testing included both a descent altitude and a landing trajectory in 2019 similar to what is expected on a lunar mission and the demonstration of two NASA-developed precision landing sensor systems in 2020.

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