CAPSTONE

CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a lunar orbiter that is testing and verifying the calculated orbital stability planned for the now canceled Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12-unit CubeSat that is also testing a navigation system that is measuring its position relative to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) without relying on ground stations. It was launched on 28 June 2022, arrived in lunar orbit on 14 November 2022, and was scheduled to orbit for six months. On 18 May 2023, it completed its primary mission to orbit in the near-rectilinear halo orbit for six months, but will stay on this orbit, continuing to perform experiments during an enhanced mission phase.[3]

Background

The Lunar Gateway was an in-development space station being planned by several national space agencies since at least 2018, including NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Gateway was planned to be placed in a novel lunar orbit that had never been used until CAPSTONE, where it was expected to serve as a communications hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots.[4]

Launch

NASA announced on 14 February 2020 that CAPSTONE would be launched aboard a Rocket Lab Electron booster from the company's new launch site at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), Wallops Island, in Virginia.[13] The launch was scheduled for October 2021 but was subsequently delayed and moved to launch from Mahia, LC-1 in New Zealand.[14][15] The launch contract with Rocket Lab has a value of US$9.95 million, according to NASA.[13]

Rocket Lab's new launch pad in Virginia, designated Launch Complex 2, was completed in 2019 and was hoped to be ready to support launches by 2021. The company said the new facility would principally support Electron missions with U.S. government payloads. However, certification of the Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) took longer than anticipated, resulting in the launch site being changed to Mahia.[14]

CAPSTONE launched on 28 June 2022. After separating from the second stage, the Rocket Lab's Photon kick stage lifted the orbital apogee into a lunar-transfer orbit over six days by firing the HyperCurie bipropellant engine at perigee six times followed by the trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn, after which the CAPSTONE spacecraft was deployed on its journey to the Moon.[16]

On 5 July 2022, NASA lost contact with the spacecraft shortly after separation from Photon and stated their intention to recover two-way communication with the spacecraft and continue the mission.[17] On 6 July, mission operators re-established contact with the spacecraft.[18] By 30 September, CAPSTONE was "power positive" and on a stable trajectory towards the Moon while the mission operators worked to regain orientation control of the spacecraft.[19] The root cause of the problem was narrowed to a valve on a thruster that is probably partially open, which thus produces thrust whenever the propulsion system is pressurized. On 7 October, the team uploaded recovery commands, stopped the spin, and regained full 3-axis attitude control. It remained on track to insert into its targeted orbit.[20]

names list	Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment
mission type	Technology demonstration
operator	Advanced Space‡R1R‡
mission duration	Planned: 10 months Elapsed:
spacecraft	CAPSTONE
spacecraft type	12U CubeSat
spacecraft bus	CubeSat
manufacturer	Advanced Space (management) Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems (bus) Stellar Exploration, Inc (propulsion)
launch mass	25 kg‡R2R‡
launch date	28 June 2022, 09:55 UTC‡R2R‡
launch rocket	Electron/Photon HyperCurie
launch site	Mahia, LC-1B
launch contractor	Rocket Lab
insignia size	200px
programme	Lunar Gateway
next mission	PPE

Background

Spacecraft

Launch

Ballistic lunar transfer

Mission

See also

References