Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

The Formation Flying Testbed

The Formation Flying Testbed (FFTB) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides a world-class hardware-in-the-loop test environment for testing and demonstration of Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) instruments.
The Formation Flying Testbed (FFTB) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides a world-class hardware-in-the-loop test environment for testing and demonstration of Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) instruments.

Pioneering Testing and Development of Advanced Navigation Systems for Space Missions

Navigation hardware is designed, and performance tested at Goddard.  The Formation Flying Testbed (FFTB) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides a world-class hardware-in-the-loop test environment for testing and demonstration of Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) instruments.  The facility hosts 10 top-of-the-line Spirent GNSS simulators which can cover all the current GNSS system frequencies.  The FFTB utilizes a distributed cesium oscillator with quartz clean up to ensure a precise time sync for the entire lab.

Over the last 25 years, the FFTB has tested receivers for Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Geostationary (GEO) and High Earth Orbit (HEO) missions including the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS), Global Precipitation Mission, (GPM) and some upcoming lunar missions.  Additionally, it has been the Research and Development (R&D) testbed for the GSFC Navigator GPS receiver and played a crucial role in the development of the X-Ray pulsar navigation mission SEXTANT. The FFTB laboratory includes the following capabilities and facilities:

The Formation Flying Testbed is managed by ETD’s Mission Engineering & System Analysis Division (MESA). Contact MESA for more information.