NASA’s CAPSTONE mission, which will draw a new orbit around the moon, which we hope will be used for a future lunar space station with a crew, is underway after a successful launch on Tuesday morning. Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle delivered the CAPSTONE, which is about the size of a large microwave oven, into Earth orbit for the first step in its lunar journey.
The Electron rocket took off from the Rocket Lab launch site in New Zealand at 5:55 AM ET, marking the 27th Rocket Lab flight for its launch vehicle and the first in history with the Moon as a destination. The satellite will remain in low Earth orbit for about six days, attached to a specially designed Photon upper stage created by Rocket Lab for this mission, after which Photon will start its engines for the last time to leave Earth orbit on the way to deep space, subsequently launching CAPSTONE to continue arriving on the moon in about three months.
The CAPSTONE mission aims to use the small satellite to test a new orbit around the moon, an elliptical path that will provide a stable enough orbit to maintain a permanent base for lunar surface operations at the Gateway, planned by NASA’s Lunar Space Station, but it also offers a good starting point for deeper exploration of space at its farthest point. The lunar portal is a key ingredient in NASA’s Artemis program, which will bring human astronauts back to the moon’s surface.
This is Rocket Lab’s first mission in deep space, but it will not be the last – the company aims to deliver two orbital spacecraft to Mars and a scientific mission also on behalf of NASA.
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