3, 2, 1, liftoff: NGA’s innovative MagQuest program approaches a critical milestone.  

This spring, a group of innovators will gather on the California coast near Vandenberg Space Force Base to watch SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket liftoff as a part of the Transporter-16 mission. Hitching a ride onboard will be three cube satellites designed and tested through NGA’s MagQuest. These toaster-sized CubeSats are equipped with instruments to precisely measure Earth’s magnetic field and provide data to inform future World Magnetic Model (WMM) updates. Representing a climactic moment of the program, MagQuest Phase 4 teams will demonstrate the first-ever effort to collect reliable magnetic data with nanosatellite technology.

Novel technologies and new form factors create opportunities for innovation, sustainability, and efficiency.

The WMM provides critical navigation guidance for nearly all modern transportation — including military operations, commercial aircraft navigation, and telecommunications. Though invisible and seldom discussed, this crucial infrastructure keeps us moving in the right direction. Data for WMM2025, the current model, is provided by the European Space Agency’s Swarm mission, a constellation of three satellites that are each larger than a city bus. As these satellites, launched in 2013, approached the end of their operational life, NGA kicked off the MagQuest competition in 2019, searching for new ways to maintain the WMM. Throughout all four phases of the global open innovation challenge, the NGA project team has collaborated with experts from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) to help teams reach this important milestone. 

Now this multiagency coalition eagerly awaits the results from this satellite launch. Beyond demonstrating scientific excellence and technical achievement, a successful mission will yield an innovative and cost-effective problem-solving approach. The MagQuest teams’ nanosatellites can be built, launched, and operated for a fraction of the cost of replicating the previous SWARM satellite constellation approach. Additionally, MagQuest also demonstrates the effectiveness of utilizing open innovation and interagency collaboration to efficiently address a critical national security challenge. The results of MagQuest will inform NGA’s acquisition strategy for global magnetic field data, to support production of the next global update, WMM2030. 

Keep your eyes on the sky (and on your inbox).

This launch is just the beginning. In the coming weeks, we’ll share the stories from the three Phase 4 teams — how they got here, what makes their solutions unique, and what they hope to achieve once their satellites reach orbit. After launch, we’ll report on early mission progress and what the data means for the future of the World Magnetic Model. For these updates, subscribe to the MagQuest newsletter.