Ibadan, 22 June 2026. – KP Labs and NaviGate have initiated a collaboration to explore how advanced onboard navigation software can leverage edge-processing capabilities available directly on satellites.
The initiative focuses on assessing the potential interoperability between KP Labs’ Leopard Data Processing Unit (DPU) and NaviGate’s NaviCode software, supporting future concepts for autonomous satellite navigation and onboard mission operations.
As satellite missions become more complex and constellations continue to grow, operators are seeking flexible onboard computing platforms capable of hosting a broad range of mission applications. At the same time, software developers require reliable, high-performance processing platforms that can support advanced applications directly onboard spacecraft.
Against this backdrop, KP Labs and NaviGate are exploring how their technologies could complement one another. The objective is thus to evaluate how advanced navigation and positioning capabilities can benefit from onboard processing resources while further demonstrating Leopard DPU’s flexibility in supporting mission-specific applications.
“One of the key trends shaping the future of space missions is the growing shift towards running advanced applications directly onboard satellites. Autonomous navigation is one of the capabilities that will become increasingly important as satellite missions grow in complexity,” said Julia Marushchak, Chief Growth Officer at KP Labs.
“By exploring how NaviCode can run on Leopard DPU, we aim to better understand how navigation functions such as onboard orbit determination and positioning can be integrated directly onboard spacecraft, reducing reliance on ground support and enabling faster operational responses in orbit.”
The collaboration consequently reflects a shared interest in enabling increasingly sophisticated applications to run directly onboard spacecraft, reducing dependence on ground infrastructure and supporting faster decision-making in orbit.
“Running NaviCode on a flight-proven edge-processing platform like Leopard DPU is a natural step to demonstrate how advanced navigation functions can be deployed directly onboard, alongside other mission-critical applications,” added Ivan di Stefano, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder at NaviGate.
“We are particularly interested in exploring how onboard precise orbit determination can complement payload data processing in Earth-observation missions, where accurate spacecraft positioning is a key input for downstream products”
Through this collaboration, KP Labs and NaviGate will better understand how advanced navigation software and edge-processing technologies can work together to support subsequent autonomous satellite missions.
