NGA launches quantum sensor into orbit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Transporter-16 ride-share mission launches from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., March 30, 2026. (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has launched into orbit an advanced quantum sensor designed to collect data on the earth's magnetic field, which could spur significant advanced in assured position, navigation, and timing (APNT).

The diamond quantum magnetometer system jointly developed by Canadian-based SBQuantum and Virginia-based satellite infrastructure company Spire Global, took orbit on aboard a cubesat launched as part Space-X's Transport-16 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 30 March, according to an agency statement.

The cubesat launched with the quantum magnetometer sensor was one of three cubesats launched on 30 March, as part of NGA's MagQuest initiative.

“This mission represents the first-ever effort to collect reliable geomagnetic data using CubeSat technology. Once in orbit, the three CubeSats, equipped with novel solutions for precisely measuring Earth's magnetic field, will provide data” to update the World Magnetic Model (WMM), NGA officials said in the statement.

The WMM is a “critical infrastructure that underpins navigation for military operations [and] commercial aviation”, they explained. The data used to populate the current WMM is drawn from the European Space Agency's Swarm mission. NGA's MagQuest programme was launched in 2019, as a way to develop “new, more resilient ways to collect geomagnetic data”, agency officials said.

The breakthrough technology in quantum magnetometer launched during MagQuest is the system's ability to provide constant collection of data on the earth's magnetic field. “Current infrastructure for monitoring Earth's magnetic field . . . provides only periodic snapshots of the field”, according to a 30 March statement by SBQuantum.