NASA has big plans for the next decade as humanity returns to the moon decades after the end of the Apollo program. While the agency is still fiddling with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at the heart of the new Artemis program, it’s already making plans for the Lunar Gateway station. It all starts with the newly launched CAPSTONE mission, which will test that station’s proposed orbit around the moon.
The future of Artemis is about big rockets like SLS and the SpaceX Starship, but CAPSTONE is a small test vehicle. So, NASA chose Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket to take it into space. CAPSTONE, which is an excellent NASA acronym for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, launched just before 6 AM today from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand launch facility. “While CAPSTONE’s journey to the Moon has only just begun, we’re proud to have safely delivered CAPSTONE to space,” said Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck.
The satellite itself clocks in at just 25 pounds (55 kilograms), but that’s no small feat for Electron. According to Beck, CAPSTONE was the largest and most challenging payload ever launched on the light-duty Electron rocket. The spacecraft is currently en route to the moon, where it will not be a permanent fixture. NASA will use CAPSTONE to validate its plans for the upcoming Lunar Gateway.
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our #CAPSTONE mission has launched to test a new type of lunar orbit, blazing a trail that will help take #Artemis missions to the Moon: https://t.co/Ri3OdH6FZ3 pic.twitter.com/XoUHX81yHo
— NASA (@NASA) June 28, 2022
Early in the Artemis program, NASA plans to perform short excursions to the lunar surface with the aid of the Starship-based Human Landing System. Closer to 2030, the Lunar Gateway will come online to support longer trips to the surface, but NASA wants to put it in a fancy new kind of orbit. CAPSTONE is headed for the station’s proposed near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. It will orbit at an altitude of 47,000 miles (76,000 kilometers) at the north pole but at just 2,100 miles (3,400 km) when passing over the south pole. This uneven orbit will ensure continuous communication, and it will be more fuel-efficient for station keeping thanks to gravitational interactions between the moon and Earth.
CAPSTONE is in a stable Earth orbit after the launch, where it is still mated to Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft bus. In the coming days, Photon will use its HyperCurie engine to set CAPSTONE on the right trajectory before dropping off. CAPSTONE should be in its intended orbit in about four months, and the NRHO testing will take another six months after that.
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