R5 Spacecraft 7, 9, and 10: Proximity Operations, Optical Comm, and Edge Compute

The Realizing Rapid, Reduced-cost high-Risk Research (R5) project has designed, assembled, integrated, tested, delivered, and launched three spacecraft with three unique missions in fiscal year 2026. Each spacecraft has applied lessons learned from the prior to enhance the cost and schedule reductions of the R5 process while reducing risk and maximizing spacecraft capabilities. Spacecraft 7 (R5-S7) completed suborbital proximity operations around a Falcon 9 upper stage in November of 2025 using an industrial LiDAR for relative navigation. Spacecraft 10 (R5-S10) launched on Transporter 16 and is intended to build on R5-S7’s mission by completing proximity operations in orbit around a Momentus Vigoride vehicle and will also demonstrate using an event camera for celestial navigation. Spacecraft 9 (R5-S9) will have launched on the Transporter 17 mission and is intended to demonstrate a novel optical
communication system in addition to an image processing and autonomy demonstration. This paper describes the missions, spacecraft construction, flight results, and associated lessons learned in the hopes that others can leverage them to improve their own cost, schedule, and technical performance.