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Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

NASA to Roll Out Major Update to core Flight Software

The Orion spacecraft docked to the Gateway space station in lunar orbit. The software framework for Gateway, like other space agency programs, is NASA's core Flight System.
The Orion spacecraft docked to the Gateway space station in lunar orbit. The software framework for Gateway, like other space agency programs, is NASA’s core Flight System. Credit: NASA

NASA is preparing to roll out a significant update to its core Flight System (cFS), the reusable software the agency has relied on for 20 years.

A government-only version of NASA cFS with enhanced security, artificial intelligence, robotics support and autonomy features will be released in mid-2025 for space agency programs. Companies working on NASA instruments, payloads, rovers, landers, balloons and unpiloted aircraft will have access to the government-only version.

An update to the open-source version of cFS, the software framework underpinning more than 40 projects from small satellites to NASA Artemis, lunar Gateway, Mars Sample Return and Roman Space Telescope, will be available soon after the government version is released.

NASA cFS, “the most popular flight software framework in the globe,” has changed little in recent years, Ashok Prajapati, cFS program manager at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told SpaceNews.

As a result, programmers often added features to suit their missions.

“The downside of that was mainstream cFS was not getting all those cool features,” Prajapati said. “We will save a lot of money and schedule time by implementing new features that multiple missions, going in parallel, need.”…

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