Deep Space Industries, in collaboration with the University of Toronto Institute Of Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) Space Flight Laboratory, recently demonstrated the first-ever control of one small satellite by another, gently handing off a human task to a machine, and clearing the way for better small satellite swarms in the future.

The demonstration involved two small satellites, with one issuing to the other an instruction to move. Deep Space Industries says:

In this experiment, one of the two spacecraft (CanX-4) autonomously programmed the other (CanX-5) to perform an orbit change using its on-board propulsion system, over a shared S-band Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) radio. CanX-5 subsequently executed the maneuver, raising its orbit. To the best of each organization's knowledge, this is the first time in history that one satellite has autonomously commanded another to execute propulsive maneuvers, with no operator in the loop.