Training Data · Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Zipline has had to engineer its navigation systems to be robust against solar weather events, such as solar flares, which can impact GPS signals. This was an unexpected challenge that required deep expertise in designing systems resilient to space weather conditions.
“And you would think it's, you know, wind, these things, but one of the weirdest things is actually solar weather.”
“So there's solar flares that happen on the sun, they basically big explosions that send radiation to the Earth, they can mess with the ionosphere, and that can cause basically the RF signals coming from GPS satellites to be faster, slower than you expect.”
“And that can lead to degradation and challenges in navigation systems.”
“And so, here's one example that, you know, when we were starting off, we didn't think that this was going to be something we'd have to figure out.”