Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

core Flight System Success Stories

  • The next space station NASA builds with international partners, the lunar Gateway, will use an agency-developed open-source code to run many of its systems. Commercial space companies are also using the code along with apps developed by Red Canyon to operate planetary landers, satellites, and more.

    Commercial Space: NASA Has an App for That

    Research balloons, satellites, and planetary landers may have little in common, but NASA has written a program that can help operate all these craft and more. This open-source software framework, called core Flight System (cFS), is similar to a smartphone operating system…

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  • Gateway's habitation and logistics outpost with moon in background.

    Goddard’s Core Flight Software Chosen for NASA’s Lunar Gateway

    NASA is improving a flight software system to help create and certify essential software for the lunar Gateway. As part of the Artemis program, NASA will send astronauts to the Moon…

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  • An artistic rendering of the full view of Gateway, an orbital outpost around the Moon.

    core Flight System (cFS)

    The Core Flight Software (cFS) Bundle is a comprehensive, platform-independent software framework designed to support embedded real-time systems. Its architecture is optimized for reuse, rapid development, and portability across diverse mission environments. Built around a dynamic runtime…

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  • The Odysseus lunar lander in orbit. (Intuitive Machines/AP)

    A New Lunar Era with Help from Goddard’s Core Flight System

    In an unprecedented achievement, Intuitive Machines has become the first private company to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon. Their spacecraft, Odysseus, marks the first American lunar landing in over 50 years…

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