Technology Demonstration

Artemis
Artemis 2
Communicating and Navigating with Missions
Goddard Space Flight Center
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Space Communications & Navigation Program
Technology Demonstration
NASA’s Artemis II mission will transport four astronauts around the Moon, bringing the agency one step closer to sending the first astronauts to Mars. Throughout Artemis II, astronaut voice, images, video, and vital mission data must traverse thousands of miles, carried on signals from NASA’s communications systems.
Posted January 28, 2026
Commercial Space
Communicating and Navigating with Missions
Space Communications Technology
Technology Demonstration
Just like your cellphone stays connected by roaming between networks, NASA’s Polylingual Experimental Terminal, or PExT, technology demonstration is proving space missions can do the same by switching seamlessly between government and commercial communications networks.
Posted December 19, 2025
Goddard Space Flight Center
Space Technology Mission Directorate
Technology
Technology Demonstration
NASA and industry partners will fly and operate a commercial robotic arm in low Earth orbit through the Fly Foundational Robots mission set to launch in late 2027. This mission aims to revolutionize in-space operations, a critical capability for sustainably living and working on other planets.
Posted December 2, 2025
ISS Research
General
International Space Station (ISS)
Technology Demonstration
NASA and Northrop Grumman are preparing to send the company’s next cargo mission to the International Space Station, flying research to support Artemis missions to the Moon and human exploration of Mars and beyond, while improving life on Earth.
Posted September 4, 2025
CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration)
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)
Earth's Moon
Game Changing Development Program
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Space Technology Mission Directorate
Technology
Technology Demonstration
A trio of suitcase-size rovers and their base station have been carefully wrapped up and shipped off to join the lander that will deliver them to the Moon’s surface. Three small NASA rovers that will explore the lunar surface as a team have been packed up and shipped from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in […]
Posted February 11, 2025
Space Communications & Navigation Program
Ames Research Center
Communicating and Navigating with Missions
Goddard Space Flight Center
Small Satellite Missions
Space Communications Technology
Technology Demonstration
NASA’s TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) demonstration and its host spacecraft — the PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-3) — have completed their technology demonstration. The TBIRD payload spent the past two years breaking world records for the fastest satellite downlink from space using laser communications.
Posted September 25, 2024
Glenn Research Center
Aeronautics
Aeronautics Research
Human Space Travel Research
International Space Station (ISS)
ISS Research
Space Communications & Navigation Program
Technology Demonstration
Technology Demonstration Missions Program
White Sands Test Facility
A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon […]
Posted July 24, 2024
Human Landing System Program
Artemis
General
Marshall Space Flight Center
Space Technology Mission Directorate
Technology Demonstration
Technology Demonstration Missions Program
As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon for the benefit of all, the agency is working with SpaceX to develop the company’s Starship human landing system (HLS), which will land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole during the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions. On March 14, SpaceX launched the […]
Posted March 14, 2024
Marshall Space Flight Center
Space Technology Mission Directorate
Technology Demonstration
By Wayne Smith In his youth, NASA technologist Les Johnson was riveted by the 1974 novel “The Mote in God’s Eye,” by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, in which an alien spacecraft propelled by solar sails visits humanity. Today, Johnson and a NASA team are preparing to test a similar technology. NASA continues to unfurl […]
Posted February 12, 2024
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