Published December 4, 2025
| Version v1
Technical note
Open
TNI & TNI-R: Transient Node Integration for Precision Orbital Navigation and Autonomous Refueling using Starlink Laser Mesh
Authors/Creators
Description
Transient Node Integration (TNI) allows launch vehicles and Starships to temporarily integrate with the Starlink laser network to achieve navigation <30 mm / <1 mm/s in real time, eliminating almost all orbital insertion correction budget (8–73 m/s savings per mission).
TNI-R extends the concept to autonomous orbital rendezvous and refueling with docking accuracy <3 cm and a 40–63% reduction in total Δv.
Implementable today with just a software update on the existing constellation + laser terminal.
Files
TNI-R_Laser-Guided_Orbital_Refueling_Technical_Proposal.pdf
Files
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Additional details
Software
- Repository URL
- https://github.com/okushigue/tni-starlink-spacex