NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has successfully conducted the first-ever deep space stellar navigation test, allowing scientists to accurately locate its position relative to nearby stars. The experiment used the spacecraft’s unique vantage point as it traveled towards interstellar space to image two nearby stars: Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359.
From the spacecraft’s perspective, the two stars appeared to shift their positions in the sky due to an effect known as stellar parallax. By referencing a three-dimensional model of the solar neighborhood, the team calculated the spacecraft’s position relative to the stars with an accuracy of about 4.1 million miles.
While this demonstration did not yield research-grade results, it demonstrated the potential for using stellar navigation in deep space exploration. The study’s lead author, Tod Lauer, said that taking simultaneous Earth-spacecraft images was a key component of the experiment, allowing scientists to visually demonstrate the concept of stellar parallaxes.
New Horizons is now continuing its extended mission to study the heliosphere and will soon cross the “termination shock” marking the boundary of interstellar space. This successful test paves the way for future deep space navigation experiments using spacecraft like New Horizons.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-07-horizons-successful-deep-space-stellar.html