NASA’s new spaceflight chip tackles a stubborn problem, spacecraft still rely on outdated processors, yet future missions need faster onboard decisions. Early tests suggest a major leap in speed and resilience. As a result, hopes are raised for smarter probes, landers, and crewed systems. A spacecraft can cross millions of miles, survive radiation, and land on another world. Yet its onboard computer often lags far behind the devices people carry in their pockets. That mismatch has long limited how much a mission can do on its own. Especially when help from Earth comes too late. NASA now says it is closing that gap with a new processor designed to give spacecraft far more computing power while surviving the punishing conditions of space. The chip sits at the center of the agency’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing project, or HPSC. This effort is meant to support more autonomous missions, faster scientific analysis, and future human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. The processor is being developed through a commercial partnership with Microchip Technology Inc., with the project led by …