NASA’s Capstone satellite is on its way to lunar orbit

NASA’s Capstone cubesat, sent into space by Rocket Lab on an Electron rocket last week, has broken out of Earth orbit and is on its way to the moon. The satellite should reach the moon in November.

The rocket was launched June 28 from Rocket Labs launch site in New Zealand. Over the past six days, the missile performed several firing maneuvers. The last of these had to send the rocket stage with the 25 kg satellite on board towards the moon, which succeeded. “It’s a project that took us about two and a half years to complete and it’s incredibly difficult to execute,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told the AP news agency. “So to see that spacecraft heading for the moon is absolutely amazing.”

NASA wants to put a space station into lunar orbit as part of the Artemis mission. That space station, the Lunar Gateway, should eventually become the base for manned missions to the lunar surface. That is why Capstone is an important first step. It is sent to Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit; that’s the same elliptical orbit around the moon where the Lunar Gateway will eventually fly. No spacecraft has ever entered that orbit. If the rest of the mission is successful, the Capstone satellite will send back important orbital information for months, such as how much fuel a spacecraft needs to stay in that orbit.

Capstone. Source: NASA