Turion Space™ and Tychee Research Group™ have successfully completed the first on-orbit execution of Tychee’s Mission Planning Library (TMPL) using Turion’s Starfire™ Nexus platform, marking a significant step forward in the deployment of high-performance, edge-compute software in space.

This milestone follows the announcement in June of 2025 that Tychee would be one of the first flagship customers of Nexus, Turion Space’s cloud-based platform that enables customers to develop, test, and deploy software directly onto Turion’s DROID satellite constellation.

From Simulation to Space: A Seamless Path to Orbit


Tychee’s TMPL software was first exercised in Turion Space’s Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) environment, where it was evaluated in a high-fidelity simulation to verify behavior across mission scenarios. It was then advanced to the Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) environment, where it ran on actual flight hardware using representative mission data — enabling robust performance testing under realistic, time-critical conditions.

Turion Space™ then supported the full integration and test campaign of TMPL in preparation for on-orbit deployment. The Nexus platform successfully uploaded, installed, and executed Tychee’s software on the DROID.002 satellite. Tychee-defined tests were run on-orbit, resulting in the successful completion of Tychee’s initial mission objectives to validate high-fidelity orbit propagation in space.

A Unified Vision for Space Software


“We’re excited to announce a major milestone: in partnership with Turion Space™, our TMPL software has successfully flown and run on-board their DROID.002 satellite,” said Robert Brady, CEO of Tychee Research Group. “This is a major development on the path to realizing our vision — a single astronautics library demonstrated in all primary use cases: modeling and simulation, operational ground software, and on-orbit flight software.”

On DROID.002, TMPL demonstrated orbit propagation with what may be the highest-fidelity force model ever flown on orbit, running at blazing speeds and well within typical Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) requirements. By leveraging Nexus, Tychee was able to increase the Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of its software and validate its performance using real on-orbit data. This achievement demonstrates not only the versatility of TMPL, but also the path forward: unifying the analytical, operational, and flight domains with one library that scales seamlessly from concept to orbit.

Enabling the Future of Space Missions


“This is a major validation of our vision for Nexus,” said Sammy Roberts, Director of Ground Software at Turion Space™. “We’ve now demonstrated that customers can go from development to on-orbit execution in a matter of weeks, not years. Tychee’s success proves that high-performance, edge-deployed software is not just possible — it’s operational.”

Laying the Groundwork for Scalable On-Orbit Innovation


With this successful mission, Turion Space™ has laid the foundation for future Nexus customer deployments. The platform’s SITL and HITL environments, combined with its cloud-native architecture, enabled rapid iteration and deployment of advanced space applications while the team’s execution speeds took the service from idea to reality in just four months.

“We’re proud to support Tychee’s mission and excited about what this means for the future of on-orbit compute,” said Ryan Westerdahl, Co-founder and CEO of Turion Space™. “This is just the beginning. Nexus is unlocking a new era of agile, scalable, and customer-driven innovation in space.”

Interested in TMPL?

If you're building satellites or ground systems, writing mission-unique software, need algorithms to run in remote environments, or want high-fidelity modeling and simulation — TMPL is for you.

For more information on TMPL, contact: [email protected]

About Tychee


Tychee was founded in 2018 at the intersection of the aerospace, tech, and defense industries. Tychee offers mission engineering, flight software, and ground software application development services. Tychee has deep experience in advanced, space mission planning. Tychee designs mission planners with productization and deployment in mind. Its applications are designed for execution in
austere, disadvantaged environments.

Website: https://www.tycrg.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tycrg/