AFRL Cislunar Mission Progresses Through Key Milestones

Colorado-based company, Advanced Space is the prime contractor for Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Oracle-Prime (Oracle-P) mission. The company leverages unmatched cislunar experience as the prime contractor for AFRL’s groundbreaking space object detection and tracking mission near the Moon.

WESTMINSTER, CO, April 2026 – Advanced Space LLC, a leading cislunar mission solutions company, continues to make significant progress as the prime contractor on the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Oracle-Prime program.

Oracle-Prime is a satellite designed to demonstrate the ability to search for unknown or lost objects and maintain custody of known objects in cislunar space — the vast region between the Earth and the Moon. The program’s on-orbit experimentation is slated to last two years.

December 2025 marked the completion of a critical program milestone (Preliminary Design Review) with Advanced Space mission partners Terran Orbital, which is providing the spacecraft, and Quantum Space, which is delivering the payload.

Oracle-Prime represents the next step in Advanced Space’s unparalleled track record of delivering successful cislunar missions. Advanced Space is designing the overall mission approach along with advanced navigation, tracking, and communication solutions for this demanding mission.

The Cislunar Challenge

Objects operating near the Moon are ten times farther from Earth than those in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and are significantly affected by the Moon’s gravity in addition to the Earth’s. This results in complex orbital dynamics that make prediction of an object’s trajectory difficult. The span of space that xGEO (Extended Geosynchronous) objects operate in is at least 1,000 times the volume of space at GEO and below, meaning that objects are much farther from sensors and more difficult to observe.

Observations of objects in cislunar space are also limited by both lunar and solar exclusion zones when viewed from Earth or traditional orbits. These challenges drive a need to explore novel cislunar orbits for sensor operation, such as those around Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1 (EML1).

Because EML1 is approximately eight times farther from Earth than GEO, communications to Oracle-Prime may be less frequent and at lower data rates than satellites closer to Earth can expect. Oracle-Prime will need to perform substantial on-board analysis to send manageable amounts of data back to Earth. Advanced Space is able to execute this mission leveraging its experience operating CAPSTONE™ at lunar distances.

Advanced Space’s Role

Advanced Space brings uniquely relevant, flight-proven, cislunar expertise to Oracle-Prime. The company owns and operates CAPSTONE™, the first commercial and privately owned satellite to operate at the Moon.

As the prime contractor, Advanced Space is responsible for the overall Oracle-Prime mission design and delivers advanced navigation, tracking, and communication solutions for the program. The system is making rapid progress to be ready for delivery next year in 2027.

“The Oracle-Prime program represents a critical next step in enabling sustainable operations throughout cislunar space. With this program, our country will gain critical space situational awareness in that critical region between Earth and the Moon. We are honored to provide AFRL the foundational capabilities needed to ensure safe and sustainable lunar operations for all.” said Bradley Cheetham, President & CEO of Advanced Space.