The Electron rocket of the company carrying the CAPSTONE mission takes off from New Zealand on June 28, 2022.
Rocket laboratory
Rocket Lab launched a small spacecraft bound for the Moon from its New Zealand facility early Tuesday, a mission that represents the first for both the company and the National Aeronautics Administration and Space.
The company’s Electron rocket carried a special version of its Photon satellite platform, which carries a 55-pound microwave-sized spacecraft called the CAPSTONE.
“Perfect Electron Launch!” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck tweeted Tuesday.
CAPSTONE, an acronym for “Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment,” is a low-cost mission that represents the first launch of NASA’s Lunar Artemis program.
Priced at approximately $ 30 million, NASA expects the mission to verify that a specific type of lunar orbit is suitable for the Gateway lunar space station that the agency plans to launch by the end of this decade.
Gateway’s success does not depend on this data, Christopher Baker of NASA, executive of the small spacecraft technology program, told CNBC before the launch. But, he added, CAPSTONE allows the agency to base its orbital calculations “on real data” and give “operational experience to the almost rectilinear Halo orbit.”
Currently orbiting the Earth, Photon will start its engine several times over the next few days, before sending the CAPSTONE spacecraft on a journey that will take about four months to reach the Moon. Once there, CAPSTONE will remain in orbit around the Moon for at least six months to collect data.
The CAPSTONE spacecraft was mounted on top of the company’s lunar photon spacecraft.
Rocket laboratory
CAPSTONE also represents the Rocket Lab’s first mission to go into “deep space,” venturing beyond the typical goal of the low-Earth orbit company.
NASA turned to a small cohort of companies to make CAPSTONE happen. In addition to Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft, Advanced Space developed and will operate CAPSTONE, while two California companies built the small spacecraft and provided its propulsion system: Terran Orbital and Stellar Exploration, respectively. .
“Actually, all the main components here come from a company that in the last 10 years has received an award for small government businesses to develop the technology that is being used for this mission,” Baker said of the NASA.
“We’re very interested in how we can support and leverage the U.S. commercial capabilities to move forward on what it’s capable of, and one of the things we’ve really been pushing over the years has been how we extend the reach of small ships. space beyond the lowland. orbiting for new challenging destinations, “Baker added.