Navigation & Timekeeping · Projected milestone

Self-navigating deep-space craft

Estimated year~2046

47% by 2051 · including earlier years

The year is an editorial timing estimate. The percentage applies to occurrence by the stated deadline. These estimates are not calibrated odds.

Spacecraft beyond the Moon fix their own position with pulsars and onboard optical clocks, freeing Earth's tracking antennas.

What the forecast means

Milestone stage: milestone (legacy definition)

Completion criteria: Legacy milestone: refine the observable threshold before resolving.

This page describes a forecast, rather than an achieved result. Read the methodology and assumptions.

No individual source links are recorded for this milestone. Source coverage and review status vary across the atlas.

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.