# NASA Precision Landing Technologies Completes Initial Flight Tests on Vertical Testbed Rocket (AFRC-2017-11349-1 Masten-COBALT-UnTetheredFLT1)

This 2-minute, 40-second video shows how over the past 5 weeks, NASA and Masten Space Systems teams have prepared for and conducted sub-orbital rocket flight tests of next-generation lander navigation technology through the CoOperative Blending of Autonomous Landing Technologies (COBALT) project. The COBALT payload was integrated onto Masten’s rocket, Xodiac. The Xodiac vehicle used the Global Positioning System (GPS) for navigation during this first campaign, which was intentional to verify and refine COBALT system performance. The joint teams conducted numerous ground verification tests, made modifications in the process, practiced and refined operations’ procedures, conducted three tether tests, and have now flown two successful free flights. This successful, collaborative campaign has provided the COBALT and Xodiac teams with the valuable performance data needed to refine the systems and prepare them for the second flight test campaign this summer when the COBALT system will navigate the Xodiac rocket to a precision landing. The technologies within COBALT provide a spacecraft with knowledge during entry, descent, and landing that enables it to precisely navigate and softly land close to surface locations that have been previously too risky to target with current capabilities. The technologies will enable future exploration destinations on Mars, the moon, Europa, and other planets and moons. The two primary navigation components within COBALT include the Langley Research…

- Kind: Short
- Year: 2017
- Runtime: 2 min
- By: NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
- Genres: Science, Space
- Archive: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Precision_Landing_Technologies_Completes_Initial_Flight_Tests_on_Vertical_Testbed_Rocket_(AFRC-2017-11349-1_Masten-COBALT-UnTetheredFLT1).webm)
- Licence or status: Public domain (as the archive states it)
- Credit: NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/commons/148184809?play=1)