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Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle takes off from Launch Complex 1 for NASA’s CAPSTONE Moon mission (Photo: Business Wire)
CAPSTONE was launched at 09:55 UTC on June 28 with an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Battle of New Zealand. The mission was the 27th Rocket Lab & CloseCurlyQuote electron launch.
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 Linear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. This is the same orbit for NASA & Gateway Gateway & CloseCurlyQuote, a multi-purpose station in lunar orbit that will provide substantial support for long-term astronaut lunar missions as part of the Artemis program.
“Today’s launch was an important step in bringing humanity back to the Moon and a testament to the determination, determination and innovation of the hundreds of people behind CAPSTONE,” said Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. “The Rocket Lab was set up to open up access to space and allow for innovative missions such as those that go beyond small satellites. While the journey of CAPSTONE & CloseCurlyQuote to the Moon has just begun, we are proud to have delivered CAPSTONE safely into space. ”
Thanks to a flawless launch with an Electron rocket into a low-Earth orbit, CAPSTONE is now in a stable orbit connected to Rocket Lab’s Photon Lunar space shuttle – a high-capacity interplanetary spacecraft that will provide space transport for setting CAPSTONE on a course for the Moon. From CAPSTONE’s original parking track, Photon Lunar ‘HyperCurie will perform a series of five-day lift maneuvers. The HyperCurie engine will ignite periodically to increase the speed of the Photon & CloseCurlyQuote, extending its trajectory into an apparent eclipse around the Earth. Six days after launch, the HyperCurie will ignite one last time, accelerating the Photon Lunar to 24,500 mph (39,500 km / h) and putting it in ballistic lunar transport. Within 20 minutes of this final burn, Photon will release CAPSTONE into space for the first leg of the CubeSat & CloseCurlyQuote solo flight. CAPSTONE ”s trip to NRHO is expected to take about four months from this point. With the help of the Sun’s gravity, CAPSTONE will reach a distance of 963,000 miles from Earth – more than three times the distance between Earth and the Moon – before being pulled back into the Earth-Moon system. This curved orbit follows dynamic gravitational contours in deep space.
Unlike the Apollo lunar expeditions of the 1960s and 1970s, which followed a free orbital return to the Moon, this efficient ballistic lunar transport makes it possible to deploy CAPSTONE on such a long orbit using a small launch vehicle. While this gravity-based orbit takes longer to reach the Moon, it will dramatically reduce the amount of fuel CAPSTONE will need to reach the Moon.
The journey of CAPSTONE & CloseCurlyQuote can be watched live using NASA & CloseCurlyQuote’s Eyes on the Solar System interactive 3D data display. Starting about a week after launch and during the CAPSTONE mission ‘, you can drive virtually with CubeSat through the eyes of NASA’
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About Rocket Lab Rocket Lab was founded in 2006 and is an end-to-end space company with a well-established mission success history. We provide reliable launch services, satellite construction, spacecraft components and orbital management solutions that make space access faster, easier and more accessible. Based in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab designs and builds the Electron small orbital launch vehicle and the Photon satellite platform and develops the 8-tonne Neutron payload launch vehicle. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab & CloseCurlyQuote’s Electron launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched rocket in the United States annually, delivering 147 orbiting satellites to private and public security organizations, nationwide scientific research and space. debris mitigation, earth observation, climate monitoring and communications. Rocket Lab & CloseCurlyQuote’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 launch sites at a private launch orbit in New Zealand and a second launch site in Virginia, USA, which is expected to be operational in 2022. To find out more, visit www. rocketlabusa.com.
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