Rocket Lab is preparing to launch the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon for NASA
Press release from: RocketLab Published: Friday, June 24, 2022
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a leading space and launch systems company, is preparing to launch a satellite to the moon for NASA as early as June 27th.
The launch will take place from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. The launch window opens at 09:50 UTC on June 27 (21:50 NZST, June 27). Backup opportunities are available until July 27 to accommodate possible technical or weather delays in launch.
Visit NASA.gov/capstone and www.rocketlabusa.com/assets/Uploads/CAPSTONE-launch-press-kit.pdf for complete mission information.
Designed and built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a Terran Orbital Corporation, and owned and operated by Advanced Space on behalf of NASA, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) CubeSat will be the first spacecraft to test the Near. Halo Rectilinear Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. Researchers hope that this orbit will be a gravitational sweet spot in space, where the attraction of gravity from Earth and the Moon interact to allow an almost stable orbit, allowing physics to do most of the work of maintaining a spacecraft orbiting the Moon. . NASA has big plans for this unique type of orbit. The agency expects to park larger spacecraft, including the lunar orbiting space station Gateway, at an NRHO around the Moon, providing astronauts with a base from which to descend to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.
CAPSTONE will be launched into an initial low Earth orbit by Rocket Lab’s electron launch vehicle and then placed on a ballistic lunar transfer by the Rocket Lab Lunar Photon spacecraft bus. Unlike the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 1970s, which made a free return trajectory to the Moon, this fuel-efficient ballistic lunar transfer allows CAPSTONE to be deployed to such a distant orbit using a small launch vehicle. At just 59 feet tall, the Electron is the smallest rocket to attempt a launch to the moon.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said, “This is Rocket Lab’s most ambitious mission to date. For the first time, Electron and Photon go far beyond standard mission profiles, pushing the envelope of what it is possible for small interplanetary spacecraft missions, no spacecraft has ever been placed in this type of orbit, so it is exciting to work with such innovative partners at NASA, Advanced Space and Terran Orbital. to make this innovative mission possible “.
The launch will be broadcast live from approximately 45 minutes before takeoff at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream and www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public
For real-time updates on the CAPSTONE mission before launch, follow Rocket Lab, NASA, Advanced Space, and Terran Orbital on Twitter.
@RocketLab
NASAAmes
@AdvancedSpace
@TerranOrbital
+ MISSION Images and videos
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzPrHL
+ About Rocket Lab
Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with an established history of mission success. We offer reliable launch services, satellite manufacturing, spacecraft components and in-orbit management solutions that make access to space faster, easier and more affordable. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the small Electron orbital launch vehicle and the Photon satellite platform and is developing the 8-tonne Neutron payload class launch vehicle. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab’s electron launch vehicle has become the second most recently launched US rocket annually and has delivered 146 satellites into orbit for public sector organizations. and private, allowing operations in national security, scientific research, and space debris mitigation. , Earth observation, climate monitoring and communications. Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform has been selected to support NASA missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch sites at two launch sites, including two at a private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a second launch site in Virginia, USA, which is expected to become operational in 2022. To obtain more information, visit www. rocketlabusa.com.
Contacts
Contact Rocket Lab media
Morgan Bailey
media@rocketlabusa.com
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