The NASA satellite leaves orbit around the Earth, towards the Moon The NASA satellite breaks from the orbit around the Earth, towards the Moon The satellite of NASA goes out of orbit around the Earth, towards the Moon

WELLINGTON, New Zealand –

A microwave-sized satellite was successfully released from its orbit around Earth on Monday and headed for the Moon, the last step in NASA’s plan to return to Earth. land the astronauts on the lunar surface.

It has already been an unusual journey for the Capstone satellite. It was launched six days ago from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand by the company Rocket Lab on one of its small Electron rockets. The satellite will take four more months to reach the moon, as it navigates with minimal energy.

Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck told The Associated Press that it was difficult to express his emotion in words.

“It will probably take a while to sink. It’s been a project that has taken us two, two and a half years and it’s incredibly, incredibly difficult to execute,” he said. “So to see it all tonight and see this spaceship on its way to the moon, it’s absolutely epic.”

Beck said the relatively low cost of the mission – NASA put it at $ 32.7 million – marked the beginning of a new era for space exploration.

“For tens of millions of dollars, there is now a rocket and a spacecraft that can take you to the Moon, to the asteroids, to Venus, to Mars,” Beck said. “It’s a crazy ability that had never existed before.”

If the rest of the mission is successful, the Capstone satellite will send vital information for months as the first to make a new orbit around the Moon called an almost rectilinear halo orbit: an egg shape stretched with one end of the orbit. passing near the moon and the other far from it.

Finally, NASA plans to put a space station called Gateway on the orbital path, from which astronauts can descend to the surface of the Moon as part of its Artemis program.

Beck said the advantage of the new orbit is that it minimizes fuel use and allows the satellite, or a space station, to stay in constant contact with Earth.

The Electron rocket that launched on June 28 from New Zealand carried a second spacecraft called Photon, which separated nine minutes later. The satellite was carried for six days to Photon, with the spacecraft’s engines periodically firing to raise its orbit farther and farther from Earth.

A last engine exploded on Monday allowed Photon to break away from Earth’s gravitational pull and send the satellite on its way. The plan now is for the 25-pound (55-pound) satellite to surpass the Moon before falling back into the new lunar orbit on November 13th. The satellite will use small amounts of fuel to make some planned trajectory corrections along the way.

Beck said they will decide over the next few days what to do with Photon, who had completed his tasks and still had some fuel left in the tank.

“There are a number of very interesting missions we can do with her,” Beck said.

For the mission, NASA teamed up with two commercial companies: California-based Rocket Lab and Colorado-based Advanced Space, which owns and operates the Capstone satellite.

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