AstroForge to Launch World's First Autonomous Space Mission in 2027
AstroForge, a California-based asteroid-mining company, is set to launch Autonomy-1, the world's first fully autonomous space mission, in early 2027. This mission will be carried aboard the inaugural flight of Stoke Space's Nova Pathfinder rocket. Autonomy-1 will operate independently, without any ground commands, utilizing AstroForge's newly developed Solo spacecraft intelligence model. According to AstroForge CEO and co-founder Matt Gialich, Solo is designed to autonomously coordinate a spacecraft's onboard functions, allowing it to make real-time decisions during flight. The mission objective for Autonomy-1 is straightforward: after separating from its launch vehicle, the spacecraft will not receive any commands from Earth, only transmitting telemetry and science data back.