NRL to Highlight Revolutionary Technologies at Space Symposium 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C.  –   The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) will highlight cutting-edge space-related programs and technologies during the 41st Space Symposium in exhibit booth #625 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, April 13-16.

NRL represents the rich history and ongoing innovation of the U.S. Navy in space. From pioneering the technology behind GPS to launching the nation's first intelligence satellite, NRL has been at the forefront of space science and security for over a century. Visit us at the 41st Space Symposium to learn about that legacy and explore how our current research can help shape the future of the space domain.

Panel: Building the Backbone: The Infrastructure Behind Space Logistics

Bernard Kelm, Acting Director of NRL’s Naval Center for Space Technology, will join the panel discussion “Building the Backbone: The Infrastructure Behind Space Logistics,” 9:35 a.m. April 16, at the International Center: North. Kelm will be joined by industry partners and collaborators to discuss what is required to propel space science development.

Visit booth #625 to learn more about NRL technologies and capabilities:

CCOR: The Compact Coronagraph is a series of three space-borne solar imaging sensors that continuously searches for massive, large scale, and fast-moving concentrations of Earth-directed solar plasma. Analysis of CCOR image plasma concentration content is used predict geomagnetic storm severity and onset times.

COSI: The Compton Spectrometer and Imager is a telescope that will survey the soft gamma ray sky and is expected to be launched by NASA in 2027. This will allow observations of energy-specific processes in space.

Fermi LAT: Fermi Large Area Telescope is a high-energy gamma-ray telescope surveying and cataloging the high-energy sky.

High Energy Atmospheric Physics: A multi-domain research program to measure and model thunderstorm-associated ionizing radiation.

LASCO: Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph is a three-telescope coronagraph system that blocks direct sunlight and captures the faint visible light scattered by energetic electrons and charged particles around the Sun. Over 30 years LASCO remains active, providing continuous high-fidelity observations of the solar corona.

LARADO: Lasersheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation, is a space-based sensor-design concept for using satellite and laser technology to detect orbital debris in sizes that currently are not detectable from the ground.

NFI: The NRL-developed Narrow Field Imager is a white-light compact, externally occulted coronagraph. It images the transition of the Sun’s atmosphere to the solar wind to understand how the Sun generates the space plasma environment.

RAMS: Ram Angle and Magnetic Field Sensor is a PicoSat- compatible attitude sensor based on sensing the ram direction. RAMS measures the cross-track neutral (or ion) wind and couples that measurement with a magnetometer measurement to provide continuous attitude knowledge relative to the local orbit frame.

SECCHI: Sun-Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation is the five-instrument imaging package onboard NASA’s STEREO spacecraft designed to reconstruct and study the 3D structure of the Sun’s corona and coronal mass ejections.

SoloHI: The Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager images the variable and gusty solar wind to identify the plasma emissions, including coronal mass ejections, leaving the sun. It is one of ten experiments being carried out onboard NASA’s Solar Orbiter Mission designed to study the relationship between the sun and solar wind.

StarBurst Multimessenger Pioneer: A small satellite instrument, that will detect the emission of short gamma-ray bursts, a key electromagnetic signature that will contribute to the understanding of neutron star mergers.

SIRI: The Strontium Iodide Radiation Instrumentation Program is designed to test performance of new gamma-ray detector technology for space-based applications, offering improved energy resolution, lower power consumption, and reduced size.

TRITON: Tiny Remote-sensing Instrument for Thermospheric Oxygen and Nitrogen is a 6U CubeSat sensor suite for determining the altitude distribution of neutral oxygen and molecular nitrogen in the upper atmosphere using advanced ultraviolet remote sensors.

Vanguard: NRL conducted the first American satellite program, the Vanguard Project. Launched March 17, 1958, the satellite Vanguard I, a component of the Vanguard Project, is a small aluminum sphere that was designed to partake in the International Geophysical Year (IGY) — a series of coordinated observations of various geophysical phenomena during solar maximum, spanning July 1957 through December 1958.

Additional Satellite Servicing Technologies and Facilities:

Blossom Point Tracking Facility [PDF]: NRL’s Blossom Point Tracking Facility provides command, control, communications, network engineering, and management of new and on orbit assets. BPTF provides a unique operational concept that utilizes full automation and enables lights-out satellite contacts

NCST Spacecraft Integration & Test Facility [PDF]: The Naval Center for Space Technology has complete in-house facilities dedicated to the research, design & development of spaceflight instruments, systems, and spacecraft. Flight hardware development ranges the full-breath of size and complexity; from card & component level items, up to national security space launch class instruments and spacecraft.

Under NCST, the Space Science Division serves as the focal point for the Navy’s in-house spacecraft bus capability. Space systems research and development activities range from basic and applied research to concept and feasibility studies, through launch integration and initial on-orbit operation. Design, assembly, integration, and test activities are performed in conjunction with NCST.

Environmental Testing Facilities: NCST operates in-house mechanical testing labs to provide NRL programs and external customers testing environments, including thermal, vibration and acoustic. The testing labs are housed in one building to enable seamless flow through mechanical testing, guaranteeing optimal product performance in their intended environments.

Neptune ® C2 Software: Award-winning government-owned & managed command and control software with a rich operational heritage on more than 100 satellites set in all orbital regimes. Neptune runs at more than 10 ground stations and operations facilities providing command and control (C2) for a diverse set of missions at all classification levels. The software can support any satellite and any set of ground station equipment in one government-owned and supported software baseline. Neptune can support any satellite operations concept, from fully staffed to completely “lights out” automated.

NRL Proximity Operations Laboratory: Allows engineers to simulate the rendezvous and proximity operations of spacecraft docking and robotic grappling of satellites. The testbed encompasses the entire 45 ft by 100 ft Space Robotics Laboratory, providing a large area to perform spacecraft maneuvers on two motion simulation platforms.

Revolutionary Imaging Technology Lab [PDF]: The Revolutionary Imaging Technology (RIT) Lab enables electro-optical payloads with on-board image processing to develop, test, and validate algorithms using simulated overhead scenes.
 
Space robotics and satellite servicing [PDF]: NRL has spent nearly two decades working to transition unmanned space robotic satellite servicing from an R&D concept to a fielded national capability. Robotic servicing promises to bring in a new era of increasingly resilient on-orbit operations by providing the ability to finely inspect, reposition, repair, and upgrade existing spacecraft. NRL has developed safe autonomous robotics controls and has focused development on understanding the interactions between all the unique elements that must work together to make satellite servicing a reality.

Variable-Speed Hypersonic Wind Tunnel [PDF]: The NRL Hypersonic Wind Tunnel is a long-duration mid-size aerodynamics test facility capable of real-time altitude and speed variation. The range spans sea level to over 30km and Mach 1.5 to 5+ in a 12” x 12” x 24” test section.

VMOC™ [PDF]: Virtual Mission Operations Center is a space-qualified, government-owned, cloud-based satellite mission-planning framework that provides offline and real-time mission planning capabilities through a web-based system.

About Space Symposium
The National Space Symposium is a platform where attendees represent all sectors of the space community from multiple spacefaring nations, space agencies, military, national security and intelligence organizations, cyber security organizations, federal and state government agencies and organizations; research and development facilities, educational institutions, private space travel providers, and more.

About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL, located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.

NRL offers several mechanisms for collaborating with the broader scientific community, within and outside of the Federal government. These include Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), LP-CRADAs, Educational Partnership Agreements, agreements under the authority of 10 USC 4892, licensing agreements, FAR contracts, and other applicable agreements.

For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at NRLPAO@us.navy.mil.