Infleqtion and NASA to fly first quantum gravity sensor to space on QGGPf mission

Infleqtion announced its role as a collaborator on NASA's Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder mission. The mission is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It will fly the first quantum sensor capable of measuring Earth's gravitational field and its gradients aboard a dedicated satellite in low Earth orbit. The quantum sensor is designed to monitor mass dynamics on the planet's surface, including changes in water, ice and land. The mission has more than $20 million in contracted mission funding to date. It includes contributions from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Texas at Austin, Infleqtion, Monarch Quantum and Jemba9. Infleqtion will handle the design, maturation and integration of the quantum core of the sensor. This includes the vacuum, laser and control subsystems. The cold-atom system is based on ultracold rubidium atoms cooled to near absolute zero. The project builds on prior work by JPL and Infleqtion on the Cold Atom Lab program aboard the International Space Station. It also builds on NASA's heritage from the GRACE mission series for gravity mapping. NASA and Infleqtion plan to complete instrument hardware development over the next three years followed by flight demonstration. The one-year mission is expected to launch in 2030.