Justin Link, small uncrewed aircraft pilot, left, reads altitude data on a handheld display, as Justin Hall, Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory chief pilot, flies NASA’s Alta-X drone near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. Researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston developed the advanced guidance and navigation system known as the Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) experiment, which is installed on the drone. SPLICE will help spacecraft land precisely and detect and avoid potential hazards, which is critical for NASA missions to the Moon and to Mars.

Location: AFRC