NASA announced Wednesday that contact has been reestablished with the US$32.7 million spacecraft headed to the Moon to test an inclined lunar orbit. Contact was lost after one successful communication and a second partial one on Monday after the spacecraft left Earth’s orbit en route to the moon, the space agency said. The spacecraft spent nearly a week circling the globe after launching from New Zealand on June 28. The 55-pound satellite is about the size of a microwave oven and will be the first spacecraft to test this oval orbit, where NASA wants to place its Gateway outpost. The portal would serve as a staging point for the astronauts before descending to the lunar surface. The orbit balances the gravity of the Earth and the Moon and thus requires little maneuvering and thus fuel and allows the satellite — or a space station — to remain in constant contact with Earth.
