Italian company NaviGate, spun out of Sapienza University of Rome, announced the completion of an orbital test of its NaviCode Caravel software aboard D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier vehicle. The test ran the software directly on the computer installed on the vehicle, where it processed raw data from the existing GNSS receiver to calculate the vehicle’s position in real time, without installing additional hardware.
The importance of the test lies in moving part of the precise orbit determination process from ground stations to the vehicle itself. Traditionally, this process requires specialized ground infrastructure, flight dynamics teams, and repeated communications with the vehicle to reconstruct and predict its orbit. As constellations expand and the need for rapid response increases, this reliance can raise costs and the operational burden and delay decisions.
Orbital Test Results
The demonstration was conducted through D-Orbit’s Software In-Orbit Demonstration service in two stages. NaviGate began by validating the software on an engineering model simulating the orbital computing environment, then uploaded the application to the ION vehicle in orbit and ran it several times on actual measurement data from the GNSS receiver.
The software operated in real time without recording any fault conditions. The best official uncertainty level in position determination was 5.2 centimeters, while the average values fell within the decimeter range across the different runs, using GPS measurements only. NaviGate compared the results with reference orbital solutions reconstructed on the ground using the European Space Agency’s GODOT software and found them to be consistent.
NaviCode Caravel also supports designs for processing data from multiple GNSS constellations and correction services such as SBAS and Galileo HAS. These capabilities could enable higher accuracy in operational applications, but they were not part of the GPS-only result announced for this demonstration.
What Changes in Practice?
Caravel’s role is not limited to determining the vehicle’s current position; the software is also designed to predict its future position and provide a measure of prediction reliability. This information could help the vehicle autonomously plan events such as communication windows with ground stations or payload operations, while reducing the need for continuous ground intervention.
NaviGate says the application could serve constellation operations, onboard image processing for Earth-observation satellites, and positioning, navigation, and timing constellations, in addition to launch vehicles and orbital-transfer vehicles. However, the source describes these areas as targeted use cases, not as completed commercial deployments.
From Testing to Commercial Use
Caravel represents the first release in the NaviCode family, while later releases are planned to expand the platform toward flexible multisensor navigation and autonomous maneuver planning in large constellations. The software was also selected as a winner in the 2026 CASSINI Challenges, a European entrepreneurship competition in the space sector run by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme.
Following the demonstration, NaviGate is seeking to work with constellation operators and mission integrators to implement initial pilot projects. The successful operation indicates that software capable of being uploaded to an orbital platform can shorten the distance between simulation and real-world data, but the extent to which these results can be relied upon in different missions will remain linked to the type of orbit, the quality of GNSS measurements, the availability of correction services, and mission requirements.