NASA has lost contact with CAPSTONE, a small satellite that went out of Earth orbit on July 4. CAPSTONE is a cubes that weighs just 55 pounds and heads to the Moon as part of NASA’s plan to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.
The small satellite stopped communicating with engineers on July 4 shortly after deploying from an Electron rocket bus and exiting Earth orbit. A NASA spokesman told Space.com that the team has solid trajectory information for CAPSTONE and that the manipulators are trying to re-establish contact with the cubes.
“If necessary, the mission has enough fuel to delay the initial post-separation trajectory correction maneuver for several days,” the spokesman told the site.
CAPSTONE spent six days increasing the speed in orbit with an electron impeller from Rocket Lab and finally deployed yesterday, on a path to the Moon. The plan is for CAPSTONE to enter an almost rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon on November 13, which will serve as a test for NASA’s Artemis mission. With Artemis, NASA plans to install a space station called the Lunar Gateway in the orbit of the Moon, which will serve as a permanent floating base for lunar visitors, with housing and a laboratory.
NASA plans to begin its Artemis 1 mission between August 23 and September 6 with the deployment of an unmanned Orion module, which will orbit the Moon and provide data on how the trip could affect the body. human. After that, four astronauts will take off for the lunar satellite. Finally, some time after 2025, NASA plans to put humans back on the moon.