NASA’s grand plan to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than half a century has taken another step forward. The 55-pound CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) cub has been released from Earth’s orbit and is on its way to the Moon.
Rocket Lab launched CAPSTONE on an Electron rocket from New Zealand last week. After six days of orbital elevation burns to increase enough speed, the search satellite headed for the moon. It’s a relatively slow journey, though. CAPSTONE will not reach the moon until November.
NASA will try to put CAPSTONE in an almost rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon, a feat that had never been attempted before. The agency plans to use the same orbit for the Gateway space station, which will support long-term lunar missions under the Artemis program. The advanced site will have rooms for astronauts and a laboratory. This mission will not be launched until at least 2024.
Meanwhile, last week it was realized that NASA was aiming for a launch window between August 23 and September 6 for the Artemis 1 mission. It will send an unmanned module around the Moon to assess how the journey can affect the human body. The agency conducted a successful wet launch feeding test for Artemis 1 in June.
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