{"id":26105836,"date":"2026-10-02T08:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/?p=26105836"},"modified":"2026-10-02T08:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:41:13","slug":"b-2-spirit-astro-inertial-navigation-stars-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/b-2-spirit-astro-inertial-navigation-stars-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"How the B-2 Navigates by the Stars: Astro-Inertial Navigation Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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Behind it sits a telescope that looks for stars. While the bomber flies, that system measures the angles to known stars and uses them to work out where the aircraft is, without asking anyone on the ground or in orbit for help.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A popular Instagram reel sums it up as the B-2 navigating by the stars &ldquo;just like ancient sailors&rdquo;, with a system an enemy &ldquo;simply can&rsquo;t jam&rdquo;. That is essentially right. But the system is older, cleverer and more widespread than the reel suggests, and the comparison with sailors only goes so far.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-left:4px solid #1a1a1a;padding:18px 22px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px\"><li><strong>What it is:<\/strong> astro-inertial navigation, an inertial system corrected by automatic star sightings<\/li><li><strong>B-2 system:<\/strong> NAS-26, a design that traces back to the 1950s Northrop SM-62 Snark cruise missile<\/li><li><strong>SR-71 system:<\/strong> Nortronics NAS-14V2, nicknamed &ldquo;R2-D2&rdquo;, accurate to about 90 m (300 ft)<\/li><li><strong>Other users:<\/strong> automatic astro trackers on later B-52 models, stellar-inertial-GPS units on the RC-135<\/li><li><strong>Can it be jammed?<\/strong> No: it receives nothing but starlight and transmits nothing<\/li><li><strong>Limitation:<\/strong> it needs a clear view of the stars, which is why high altitude helps<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Two Halves of One System<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An inertial navigation system, or INS, is the backbone. It measures every acceleration and rotation of the aircraft with gyroscopes and accelerometers and integrates them, second by second, into a position. It needs no outside signal at all, which makes it ideal for a stealth bomber. Its weakness is drift: tiny measurement errors add up over hours, so the longer an aircraft flies on inertial navigation alone, the further its computed position wanders from the truth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The star tracker is the cure. Because the positions of bright stars are known precisely for any given moment, measuring the direction to two or three of them, together with an accurate clock, pins down where the aircraft must be and which way it is pointing. Each star fix resets the accumulated error of the INS. Put the two together and you get a system that is smooth and continuous like an INS, and does not drift like one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pq_PDaYclAw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">From a 1950s Cruise Missile to the B-2<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The B-2&rsquo;s system has a surprising ancestor. The bomber uses the NAS-26 astro-inertial navigation system, whose design goes back to Northrop&rsquo;s SM-62 Snark of the 1950s, an intercontinental cruise missile that had to find its way across thousands of kilometres with no help from the ground. Northrop, which built both the Snark and the B-2, simply kept refining the idea. Our story of the Snark, including the one that went missing over the Amazon, is here: <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/sm-62-snark-cruise-missile-lost-amazon-1956\/\">The Snark: America&rsquo;s Nuclear Cruise Missile That Flew Into the Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/sm-62-snark-intercontinental-cruise-missile.jpg\" alt=\"Northrop SM-62 Snark intercontinental cruise missile launching\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Northrop SM-62 Snark launches. Its star-tracking navigation was the starting point for the system in today&rsquo;s B-2. Photo: US Air Force<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best-known descendant is the one in the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/sr-71-blackbird\/\">SR-71 Blackbird<\/a>. Its Nortronics NAS-14V2 sat behind the reconnaissance systems officer&rsquo;s cockpit and looked up through a quartz window. Crews nicknamed it &ldquo;R2-D2&rdquo; after the Star Wars robot it vaguely resembled. According to the Smithsonian, it could fix the Blackbird&rsquo;s position to within about 90 metres, or 300 feet. It held a catalogue of 64 stars and could find them in daylight as well as at night.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The ANS was the 1960&rsquo;s version of GPS, but instead of using satellites to locate itself, the ANS used the stars.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Linda Sheffield Miller<\/strong> &mdash; daughter of SR-71 reconnaissance systems officer Col. Richard Sheffield<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/sr-71-blackbird-nasa-in-flight.jpg\" alt=\"SR-71B Blackbird NASA 831 in flight over the Sierra Nevada\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The SR-71B trainer flown by NASA as NASA 831. Every Blackbird carried a star tracker behind the rear cockpit. Photo: USAF \/ Judson Brohmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FdEnIQD05xk\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Seeing Stars in Daylight<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hard part is not the maths but the light. In daylight, sunlight scattered by the atmosphere drowns out the stars. Aircraft star trackers get around this with a long, narrow, heavily baffled telescope that looks at only a tiny patch of sky, and by flying high, where there is far less air above them to scatter the light. NASA engineers working on modern daytime star trackers go further, filtering out visible light and looking for stars in the near infrared instead.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That is also the system&rsquo;s honest limitation. A star tracker needs a clear line of sight to the sky. Below a thick cloud deck it sees nothing, and the aircraft has to rely on its inertial platform until it gets a view again. For a high-flying bomber or a reconnaissance jet operating above most weather, that is rarely a serious problem.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3hYSnyVLmGE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why It Cannot Be Jammed<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GPS works by listening to faint radio signals from satellites more than 20,000 kilometres away. Those signals can be drowned out by a jammer on the ground, or imitated by a spoofer that feeds a receiver a false position. A star tracker listens to nothing that an enemy controls. It receives starlight and transmits nothing, so there is no signal to jam, nothing to spoof and nothing for an enemy to detect. For an aircraft whose whole purpose is to reach a defended target unseen, that is exactly the right property.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Instead of using a constellation of chronometer-packing satellites in orbit around the earth, the astro-nav uses the light from distant stars.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Col. Richard Graham<\/strong> &mdash; former SR-71 pilot, as quoted by The War Zone<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is why astro-inertial navigation has quietly come back into fashion. Northrop Grumman&rsquo;s LN-120G, fitted to the RC-135 reconnaissance fleet, combines stellar, inertial and GPS navigation in one unit, and militaries everywhere are looking for ways to keep flying when GPS is jammed, as it routinely is over Ukraine and the Middle East.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/b-2-spirit-stealth-bomber-in-flight.jpg\" alt=\"B-2 Spirit stealth bomber in flight over the Pacific\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A B-2 Spirit of the 509th Bomb Wing over the Pacific. Its navigation combines inertial sensors, GPS and automatic star sightings. Photo: US Air Force \/ Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Like Ancient Sailors? Fact-Checking the Reel<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&ldquo;The B-2 uses stars to navigate.&rdquo;<\/strong> True. Its NAS-26 system takes automatic star sightings to correct its inertial navigation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&ldquo;Just like ancient sailors.&rdquo;<\/strong> Partly. The principle is the same one a navigator used with a sextant and a chronometer: measure the angle to known stars at a known time and work out where you are. Sailors measured a star&rsquo;s height above the horizon by hand, usually only at twilight, when both the stars and the horizon were visible, and then worked out the fix with tables and a pencil. The B-2 does it automatically, in daylight, against a stabilised inertial platform rather than the horizon, and recalculates continuously.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&ldquo;One of the few navigation systems an enemy can&rsquo;t jam.&rdquo;<\/strong> True, with a nuance: it is not the B-2&rsquo;s only system. The bomber also uses GPS and its inertial platform. The star tracker is what keeps it accurate when GPS cannot be trusted.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What the reel leaves out.<\/strong> The B-2 is not unique. The SR-71 did it in the 1960s, later B-52s carried an automatic astro tracker that replaced the navigator&rsquo;s hand-held sextant, and the idea itself was developed for a cruise missile before the B-2 was even on the drawing board.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Does the B-2 Spirit navigate by the stars?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. The B-2 Spirit uses the NAS-26 astro-inertial navigation system, which takes automatic sightings of known stars through a small window and uses them to correct its inertial navigation. It works alongside the bomber&rsquo;s inertial platform and GPS, and keeps the B-2 accurate when GPS cannot be trusted.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is astro-inertial navigation?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Astro-inertial navigation combines an inertial navigation system, which tracks every acceleration and rotation of the aircraft, with an automatic star tracker. The inertial system drifts slowly over time; each star fix measures the direction to known stars at a precise time and resets that drift, giving continuous, accurate navigation without outside signals.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Can the B-2 star navigation system be jammed?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">No. An astro-inertial system receives only starlight and transmits nothing, so there is no radio signal for an enemy to jam or spoof, unlike GPS. Its real limitation is cloud: the star tracker needs a clear view of the sky, which is why it works best at high altitude.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the SR-71 R2-D2?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">\"R2-D2\" was the nickname for the SR-71 Blackbird&rsquo;s Nortronics NAS-14V2 astro-inertial navigation system. Mounted behind the rear cockpit under a quartz window, it held a catalogue of 64 stars, could track them in daylight, and could fix the aircraft&rsquo;s position to within about 90 metres (300 feet), according to the Smithsonian.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Where did the B-2 navigation system come from?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The B-2&rsquo;s NAS-26 astro-inertial system traces back to Northrop&rsquo;s SM-62 Snark, an intercontinental cruise missile of the 1950s that used star tracking to navigate across thousands of kilometres. Northrop built both the Snark and the B-2.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How can a star tracker see stars in daylight?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Aircraft star trackers use a long, narrow, heavily baffled telescope that looks at a tiny patch of sky, which cuts out most of the scattered sunlight, and they work best at high altitude where there is less air above them. Modern daytime star trackers also filter out visible light and look for stars in the near infrared.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Is the B-2 the only aircraft that navigates by the stars?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">No. The SR-71 Blackbird used the NAS-14V2 \"R2-D2\" from the 1960s, later B-52 models carried an automatic astro tracker that replaced the navigator&rsquo;s hand-held sextant, and the RC-135 reconnaissance fleet uses Northrop Grumman&rsquo;s LN-120G stellar-inertial-GPS system.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Does the B-2 Spirit navigate by the stars?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. The B-2 Spirit uses the NAS-26 astro-inertial navigation system, which takes automatic sightings of known stars through a small window and uses them to correct its inertial navigation. 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Its real limitation is cloud: the star tracker needs a clear view of the sky, which is why it works best at high altitude.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the SR-71 R2-D2?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"\\\"R2-D2\\\" was the nickname for the SR-71 Blackbird\u2019s Nortronics NAS-14V2 astro-inertial navigation system. Mounted behind the rear cockpit under a quartz window, it held a catalogue of 64 stars, could track them in daylight, and could fix the aircraft\u2019s position to within about 90 metres (300 feet), according to the Smithsonian.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Where did the B-2 navigation system come from?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The B-2\u2019s NAS-26 astro-inertial system traces back to Northrop\u2019s SM-62 Snark, an intercontinental cruise missile of the 1950s that used star tracking to navigate across thousands of kilometres. Northrop built both the Snark and the B-2.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How can a star tracker see stars in daylight?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Aircraft star trackers use a long, narrow, heavily baffled telescope that looks at a tiny patch of sky, which cuts out most of the scattered sunlight, and they work best at high altitude where there is less air above them. Modern daytime star trackers also filter out visible light and look for stars in the near infrared.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is the B-2 the only aircraft that navigates by the stars?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"No. The SR-71 Blackbird used the NAS-14V2 \\\"R2-D2\\\" from the 1960s, later B-52 models carried an automatic astro tracker that replaced the navigator\u2019s hand-held sextant, and the RC-135 reconnaissance fleet uses Northrop Grumman\u2019s LN-120G stellar-inertial-GPS system.\"}}]}<\/script><p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:28px\">Sources: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Time and Navigation, &ldquo;Nortronics NAS-14V2 Astroinertial Navigation System&rdquo;; The War Zone, &ldquo;SR-71&rsquo;s R2-D2 could be the key to winning future fights in GPS-denied environments&rdquo;; The Aviation Geek Club, on the SR-71 Astroinertial Navigation System; Wikipedia, &ldquo;Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit&rdquo;; Glenn&rsquo;s Computer Museum, &ldquo;B-52 MD-1 Astro Navigator&rdquo;; NASA, &ldquo;NASA Engineer Advances New Daytime Star Tracker&rdquo;.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/sm-62-snark-cruise-missile-lost-amazon-1956\/\">The Snark: America&rsquo;s Nuclear Cruise Missile That Flew Into the Amazon<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/diu-honeywell-magnav-gps-free-flight-test-2026\/\">GPS Off for Four Hours: The Jet That Navigated by Rock<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/cockpit-crew-five-to-two-navigator-flight-engineer-glass-nose\/\">Navigators and Flight Engineers: How Cockpits Went From Five to Two<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The B-2 Spirit really does navigate by the stars. How astro-inertial navigation works, why it cannot be jammed, and how it links the B-2 to the SR-71 and a 1950s cruise missile.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":26105057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26105836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How the B-2 Navigates by the Stars: Astro-Inertial Navigation Explained | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The B-2 uses astro-inertial navigation: star sightings that correct its inertial system and cannot be jammed. 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