Terran Orbital and Rocket Lab collaborated with NASA to launch Capstone, a small spacecraft currently scouting the future orbit of the Lunar Gateway.
Terran Orbital delivered five satellites during the second quarter of 2022, including NASA’s CAPSTONE and the first of ten satellite buses for the SDA Transport Layer Tranche 0.
Terran Orbital delivered and supported the launch of NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite for a pathfinder mission as part of the Artemis program.
Lunar Photon had 10–15% of its propellant remaining more than a month after deploying CAPSTONE.
Rocket Lab achieved three successful Electron launches in just over five weeks in 2022 with CAPSTONE, NROL-162, and NROL-199.
Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon deployed NASA’s CAPSTONE spacecraft to the Moon on 2022-06-28 and includes MAX Flight Software among its onboard systems.
Terran Orbital Corporation completed CAPSTONE’s second trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) burn on 2022-07-12.
CAPSTONE launched on 2022-06-28 aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle attached to Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon spacecraft.
CAPSTONE is heading to a unique orbit intended for Gateway, a lunar space station to be built by NASA and its commercial and international partners to support science and human exploration under Artemis.
Terran Orbital Corporation designed and built the CAPSTONE CubeSat.
CAPSTONE will reach a distance of 958,0 m from Earth during its Sun-assisted trajectory.
TCM-1 is the first maneuver executed by the CAPSTONE spacecraft using its onboard propulsion system.
Terran Orbital Corporation completed the CAPSTONE satellite’s first TCM burn (TCM-1).
Prior to TCM-1, the CAPSTONE spacecraft was on a trajectory that would take it approximately 1.2 million kilometers from Earth.
After completion of TCM-1, the CAPSTONE spacecraft is targeting a trajectory that will take it approximately 1.4 million kilometers from Earth.
CAPSTONE’s deployment followed six days of orbit-raising burns around Earth aboard Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon spacecraft bus.
Terran Orbital designed, built, and integrated the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE).
Advanced Space operates the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat.
Controllers received a signal from CAPSTONE at 9:26 a.m. Eastern and received full telemetry nearly an hour later, confirming the spacecraft was in good condition.
The communications interruption led controllers to postpone CAPSTONE’s first trajectory correction maneuver that had been scheduled for 2024-07-05.