Italy is taking a step toward the future of lunar exploration with COLLINS, a mission designed to help spacecraft navigate around the Moon. On November 13, 2026, the Italian Space Agency and Qascom announced a contract to develop the project, building on Italy’s achievements in satellite navigation.
Named after Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, the experiment will travel aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Elytra Dark lunar orbiter as part of Blue Ghost Mission 3. Its receiver will test whether signals from Earth’s GPS and Galileo systems can work alongside emerging lunar navigation infrastructure, including the European Space Agency’s Moonlight program.
The goal is interoperability – enabling different systems to operate together through the LunaNet framework. That capability could help future missions determine their location more independently as activity expands between Earth and the Moon.
COLLINS follows LuGRE, the joint Italian Space Agency–NASA experiment developed by Qascom with support from Politecnico di Torino. Carried by Blue Ghost Mission 1, which landed on March 2, 2025, LuGRE achieved the first satellite navigation fix on the lunar surface the following day. Its work continued during a lunar day, equivalent to 14 Earth days, demonstrating that GPS and Galileo signals could support navigation far beyond their original terrestrial purpose.
The new project also advances cooperation between public institutions and private industry, with Qascom contributing through the acquisition of hosting services aboard Elytra Dark.
By combining Italian engineering, European infrastructure and American spacecraft capabilities, COLLINS strengthens international partnerships while helping lay the foundations for a connected lunar future.
