Core Flight System

What Is the cFS?

The core Flight System (cFS) is a platform- and project-independent reusable flight software framework and set of reusable software applications.

Its use of abstracted OS and platform interfaces makes it easy to port across multiple operating systems and hardware platforms. The cFS uses NASA best practices and architectures developed over 20+ flight missions. A version of the cFS has been Class A (manned flight) certified, and a version has been open-sourced.

EFSI is extending the cFS ecosystem with AI-driven tooling for automated testing, app development, and intelligent table and T&C management — all integrated within our FOGI-Lake development environment. See details below.

The cFS is a key component of EFSI's flight software development capability, with personnel contributing to over 20 successful flight missions using cFS-based architectures.

NASA cFS Architecture — Layered framework with reusable applications, cFE, OSAL, and PSP.

EFSI cFS Innovation

AI-driven tools and automation extending the cFS ecosystem.

Automated Test Generation

AI-powered tools for automated generation of unit tests and build-test suites, providing exhaustive coverage across cFS applications and reducing manual test development effort.

Requirements-to-Test Tracing

AI-assisted traceability from test requirements through test execution, ensuring complete verification coverage and streamlining the certification process.

Automatic App Development

AI-driven scaffolding and code generation for cFS applications, accelerating the development of new mission-specific apps while maintaining conformance with cFS architecture patterns.

Table & T&C Handling Tools

New tooling for programmatic management of on-board flight software tables and telemetry & command (T&C) databases, eliminating manual configuration errors and maintaining parity between flight and ground segments.

FOGI-Lake Integration

The cFS is a key component of EFSI's FOGI-Lake development environment. FOGI-Lake provides a containerized Digital Twin that deploys the full cFS stack alongside ground systems, operations tools, and AI/ML frameworks — enabling end-to-end development and testing without flight hardware.

Explore FOGI-Lake

Class A Certification

NASA 7150.2 Class A certification for VxWorks and SPARC architecture. Class A means the software is approved for manned flight applications — the highest reliability standard.

Open Source

Both open-source and non-open-source versions are available. The open-source version is on GitHub. Any U.S. entity can obtain the internal NASA version.

View on GitHub

Flight Software Development

The cFS is a core component of EFSI's flight software capability. Explore our full-spectrum flight software engineering from Pre-Phase A through Phase E operations.

Explore Flight Software