NASA Signs Data Sharing Deal With AST Subsidiary to Boost Spaceflight Safety

NASA and AST SpaceMobile’s AST & Science subsidiary sealed an information sharing agreement to avoid collision between the agency’s spacecraft and the company’s satellites.

The deal focuses on conjunction and launch collision avoidance involving NASA’s space assets and AST’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite as well as its planned Bluebird constellation, the government agency said.

The two parties defined specific responsibilities, arrangements, procedures and levels of coordination and cooperation to ensure their full awareness of the exact location of their proprietary space objects.

“By working more closely together with AST SpaceMobile, we can mitigate collisions that might otherwise adversely impact our mission success,” said Bob Cabana, NASA associate administrator.

BlueWalker 3 and BlueBird are AST’s space-based cellular broadband satellite programs. They might need complicated risk mitigation strategies considering their low-thrust, high-impulse maneuvering system.