Overview
- An experimental ESA cubesat, OPS-SAT PRETTY, received a spoken command that it transcribed on board and used to launch the 1993 game Doom during an evening pass on July 27, 2026.
- PRETTY sent back a digital 'postcard' that included a gameplay frame, the text transcription, signal diagnostics, and an audio clip as proof of the command and action.
- The team fixed practical barriers such as a receiver channel that was too wide, Doppler shift and an antenna not tuned for voice, and used open-source tools including GNU Radio for signal processing and Sherpa-ONNX for speech recognition.
- Norwegian radio amateurs from Tanagra Space and the Oslo club spent about 59 days and roughly 7,200 NOK to troubleshoot transmissions and collaborate with OPS-SAT Space Lab to run the demo.
- The result is a validated proof of concept rather than an operational feature, and researchers say more work is needed before on-board speech systems could be made robust and certified for tasks like automated mayday detection.