Progress in Satellite Formation Flying Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

After decades of research and conceptual development, formation flying is finally transitioning from a visionary concept to a concrete capability. Technological advances are now enabling the design and implementation of missions based on coordinated spacecraft formations and distributed satellite systems. These missions promise transformative benefits in fields such as Earth observation, astronomy, telecommunications, and space science. Moreover, distributed systems are expected to play a critical role in future mission concepts, including in-orbit servicing, on-orbit assembly, and deep space exploration. Despite this progress, significant technological challenges remain, particularly in the development of robust guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) subsystems. These systems must ensure high levels of autonomy, resilience, and precision to allow multiple spacecraft to operate cooperatively with minimal ground intervention. Achieving such autonomy demands advanced algorithms, reliable sensors, and sophisticated control strategies. Moreover, the performance of GNC subsystems must be validated extensively before deployment. This can be accomplished through dedicated in-orbit demonstrations or through rigorous ground-based testing in laboratory environments that simulate space dynamics. This Special Issue aims to collect recent advancements, numerical and/or experimental results, and novel approaches in the field of formation flying, with a particular focus on enabling technologies and validation methodologies that will drive the next generation of autonomous space missions.

Dr. Marco Sabatini
Guest Editor

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• formation flying
• distributed satellite systems
• proximity operations
• autonomous GNC
• relative dynamics modeling
• formation design
• formation control
• relative navigation
• visual, LIDAR, RF, and GNSS navigation
• in-orbit operations
• mission design
• technology demonstrators
• low-thrust actuators
• HIL experiments
• artificial intelligence