NGA Launches New Small Sats to Measure Earth’s Magnetic Field

Small satellites meant to improve the way the U.S. measures Earth’s magnetic field—an option to expand the military’s position, navigation, and timing enterprise—launched March 30 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.

The three cube satellites, part of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s MagQuest program, lifted off on SpaceX’s Transporter-16 rideshare mission early in the morning. Once in orbit, the spacecraft will provide crucial data to boost the accuracy of the World Magnetic Model, which underpins a number of military and civilian applications—from navigation to energy to telecommunications.

“We are on the verge of proving that small, affordable satellites can deliver the high-quality magnetic data our nation depends on,” Mike Paniccia, NGA’s program manager for the World Magnetic Model, said in a statement. “These teams have spent the past few years pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with CubeSat technology, and this launch is the moment where all of that ingenuity meets the ultimate test.”

The World Magnetic Model serves as the standard guide for systems that use the geomagnetic field to operate. Because the Earth’s magnetic force is constantly changing, the model has to be updated on a regular cadence. Every five years, the NGA and the United Kingdom’s Defence Geographic Centre—who jointly produce the WMM—refresh the model to correct for those changes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British Geological Survey then publish those updates.

The model has since 2013 relied on European Space Agency satellites called Swarm, which carry instrumentation to measure the magnetic field, but the NGA has been working to develop new systems to supplement Swarm. In 2019, it announced MagQuest as a way to leverage technology from startups, labs, and academia to inform future plans to improve the WMM’s reliability. In 2021, it chose three teams who had advanced through a concept and design phase to build and launch their satellites:

Iota Technology, whose lo-1 cubesat features advanced sensor technology and deployable structures
Spire Global and SB Quantum, who developed a quantum magnetometer to monitor Earth’s magnetic field and update the WMM on a near-continuous basis
The University of Colorado Boulder, whose Compact Spaceborne Magnetic Observatory Cubesat, or COSMO, designed to provide high-quality data collection

In a March 30 press release, SBQuantum noted that while the focus of MagQuest is on identifying technologies that could improve the WMM, there are secondary implications for the data collected from capabilities like its quantum magnetometer, which it says could support alternatives to GPS for positioning, navigation, and timing.

“Unlike GPS, magnetic navigation provides reliable and accurate readings across all environments, including those where satellite signals are denied, degraded or contested,” the company said. “This makes it a strategic priority for defense and aerospace sectors seeking resilient alternatives to GPS in an era of growing electronic warfare.”

Once the MagQuest satellites fully deploy on orbit, the teams will start collecting geomagnetic data and measuring it against the latest WMM standard from 2025. Their performance will shape NGA’s acquisitions strategy for a new magnetic field data collection system, which it hopes to deliver by 2030—in time for the next WMM update.

“Beyond demonstrating scientific excellence and technical achievement, a successful mission will yield an innovative and cost-effective problem-solving approach,” NGA said. “The MagQuest teams’ nanosatellites can be built, launched, and operated for a fraction of the cost of replicating the previous Swarm satellite constellation approach.”