NASA’s CAPSTONE is now on its journey to the moon on its own.
The 55-pound (25-kilogram) CAPSTONE microsatellite has finished its final burn today (July 4) to settle on a trajectory that will take it to Earth’s celestial companion later this year.
The complex operation required a microwave-sized CAPSTONE, which was launched from New Zealand on June 28, to complete the burning while still connected to the Photon spacecraft bus, which was separated 20 minutes later.
The mission, operated by NASA, was launched into space on the Electron rocket by the small satellite launch company Rocket Lab and is the company’s first beyond Earth orbit.
The company celebrated the milestone burning, which took place at 2:56 am EDT (06:56 GMT) in Twitter posts and with a live YouTube broadcast (opens in a new tab) of the successful recording.
“It sounds like something epic should be said, but everything … I can say it’s a perfect success of the moon mission,” Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab wrote on Twitter:
Related: Why NASA’s small CAPSTONE spacecraft will take so long to reach the moon
MISSION UPDATE: Separation Success! Our #CAPSTONE spacecraft has left @RocketLab’s top stage Photon and has begun its solo journey to the Moon. The pathfinder is scheduled to reach its lunar orbit on November 13. More information: pic.twitter.com/hDbeQ1XHQu4 July 2022
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The final burn was expected to accelerate the Photon-CAPSTONE duo to 24,500 mph (39,400 km / h) before separation. Now, the cubes the size of a microwave oven will face a four-month journey, sometimes reaching up to 810,000 miles (1.3 million km) from Earth before gravity brings it closer to the planet. and to the moon again.
Engineers chose a long, winding road for CAPSTONE because the winding road will save fuel, a necessity, as Electron is only 18 meters tall and has no large fuel tanks compared to other engines.
The next major milestone will take place on November 13, when CAPSTONE moves into an almost rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. The path, a test field for NASA’s next Gateway space station, will see CAPSTONE take an elliptical path. It will approach 1,600 km (1,000 miles) from the lunar surface at its nearest point and 70,000 km (43,500 miles) at its farthest point.
NASA’s cubed CAPSTONE will zoom around the moon in an almost rectilinear halo orbit. (Image credit: Advanced Space)
CAPSTONE (short for “Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment”) will be an important search engine for Gateway, as no other spacecraft has previously occupied a lunar NRHO.
If the small spacecraft shows the stability of this orbit, it will be an important key in the Artemis lunar exploration program, as astronauts will use Gateway to do missions to the surface on the Moon.
Along the way, CAPSTONE also plans navigation and communications tests, including communications with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been photographing the moon in high definition since 2009.
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