# nasa/astrobee

NASA Astrobee Robot Software

Repository: https://github.com/nasa/astrobee
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/astrobee
Homepage: https://www.nasa.gov/astrobee
Language: C++
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2025-12-02T17:42:45+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 48/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 55, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3291, "days_push": 274, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1397, forks 378 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:36.744625+00:00)

## What it is
NASA's open-source flight software for the Astrobee free-flying robots operating aboard the International Space Station, written primarily in C++ on top of ROS. It includes vision-based localization, autonomous navigation and docking, sensor/actuator management, a Gazebo-based simulator, and tools such as ISS imagery mapping for localization.

## Use cases
- simulate astrobee robot behavior without hardware
- develop guest science code that runs onboard the robot
- build maps from ISS imagery for vision-based localization
- command the robot via plans, teleoperation, or the command API
- research autonomous navigation and docking in microgravity

## When to choose
- you are doing robotics research targeting Astrobee or ISS environments
- you need a ROS/Gazebo simulator for a free-flying microgravity robot
- you want to develop and test guest science applications for Astrobee

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose terrestrial drone or rover stack
- you are not working with ROS or Linux-based robotics tooling
- you expect plug-and-play support for hardware other than Astrobee

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: active
- function: robotics, simulation, computer-vision, middleware
- domain: robotics, simulation, autonomous-vehicles
- platform: cpp
- tags: nasa, free-flying-robot, iss, gazebo, flight-software, ros, localization, space-robotics, linux

## Member repositories
- nasa/astrobee (main) score 48

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:36.744625+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:39:16.963508+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nasa/astrobee (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:36.744625+00:00, sha c82da47b0deb)
  - homepage: https://www.nasa.gov/astrobee (fetched 2026-08-29T11:53:47.049144+00:00, sha 667d76bb93bd)
  - site_page: https://www.nasa.gov/about (fetched 2026-08-29T11:53:47.061123+00:00, sha de3f17b71274)
  - site_page: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/roman-space-telescope/9-things-to-know-about-nasas-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope (fetched 2026-08-29T11:53:47.063168+00:00, sha 0a0eaa0dc6c2)
  - site_page: https://www.nasa.gov/2026-news-releases (fetched 2026-08-29T11:53:47.058665+00:00, sha 08703aa33302)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.