The Cislunar Autonomous Navigation System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, is a CubeSat that will fly into a unique orbit around the Moon intended for NASA’s future lunar outpost. Its six-month mission will help usher in a new era of space exploration. Credit: NASA Ames Research Center Mission operators have re-established contact with NASA’s CAPSTONE spacecraft. Mission crews for NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Navigation and Operations Technology Experiment (CAPSTONE) have re-established contact with the spacecraft via NASA’s Deep Space Network after experiencing communication problems. Data received by CAPSTONE indicates that the spacecraft is in good health and was operating safely on its own when not communicating with Earth. The teams are preparing to perform CAPSTONE’s first orbit adjustment maneuver as early as 11:30 AM. EDT (8:30 a.m. PDT) on July 7. It will more accurately target CAPSTONE’s transfer orbit to the Moon. CAPSTONE is still scheduled to reach lunar orbit on November 13, as originally planned. CAPSTONE communicates with Earth through NASA’s Deep Space Network. In the meantime, the CAPSTONE team is still actively working to fully identify the root cause of the problem. Ground tests suggest that the problem occurred during the start-up activities of the communications system. The team will continue to evaluate the data that led to the communications issue and monitor CAPSTONE’s status. The mission team, led by Advanced Space, first reestablished contact with CAPSTONE at 9:26 AM. EDT (6:26 a.m. PDT) on July 6. The signal confirmed that CAPSTONE was in the expected location as predicted based on data from CAPSTONE’s initial contacts on 4 July. The team initiated recovery procedures and began receiving telemetry data from the spacecraft at 10:18 AM. EDT (7:18 a.m. PDT). After its launch on June 28, CAPSTONE orbited Earth attached to Rocket Lab’s photon upper stage, which guided CAPSTONE into position for its journey to the Moon. Photon’s engines fired seven times in the first six days at key moments to raise the orbit’s highest point to about 810,000 miles (1,300,000 km) from Earth before releasing the CAPSTONE CubeSat into its ballistic lunar transfer orbit to the Moon.
