# Icarus Robotics tests free‑flying ISS robot JOY on 66 parabolic flights

Digest AI · Robotics & Physical AI · published 2026-09-18T13:07:45Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/icarus-robotics-tests-freeflying-iss-robot-joy-on-66-parabolic-flights

## Summary

Icarus Robotics reported that its free‑flying robot JOY completed 66 parabolas over four flights from Sept. 9 to 11, providing roughly two minutes of weightlessness. The tests focused on three core systems—manipulation, state estimation and flight control—and showed the seven‑degree‑of‑freedom arms and adaptive pinch gripper performed as expected. Because the team could not teleoperate the robot in microgravity, they replayed pre‑recorded trajectories from office tests to benchmark performance.

The company plans to hand over JOY to NASA on Jan. 25, 2027, after which NASA will launch the robot to the International Space Station as Joyride‑1 in May 2027. JOY will initially be teleoperated and later gain autonomy as data are collected in orbit. Icarus built the arms in‑house and powers the robot with an NVIDIA Jetson T5000 module, offering far more compute than earlier ISS free‑flyers such as Astrobee. The startup, based in Brooklyn, raised $6.1 million in seed funding last year and is finalizing flight hardware for the upcoming NASA handover.

## Key points

- JOY completed 66 parabolas across four flights, delivering about 2 minutes of microgravity.
- Icarus aims to hand over JOY to NASA on Jan 25 2027 for ISS deployment in May 2027.
- The robot uses seven‑DoF arms, adaptive pinch grippers, and an NVIDIA Jetson T5000 compute module.

## Why it matters

Demonstrating advanced manipulation and AI‑driven control in microgravity could free astronaut time and set a new standard for space robotics.

## Sources

1. [Icarus Robotics flies ISS-bound robot in microgravity for the first time](https://therobotreport.com/icarus-robotics-flies-iss-bound-robot-in-microgravity-for-the-first-time) (The Robot Report, 2026-09-18)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Icarus Robotics tests free‑flying ISS robot JOY on 66 parabolic flights", 18 September 2026, https://digestai.news/story/icarus-robotics-tests-freeflying-iss-robot-joy-on-66-parabolic-flights

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