CAPSTONE will test a navigation system developed by Advanced Space that measures its absolute position in cislunar space using interaction with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Advanced Space is targeting a CAPSTONE launch window that opens 2022-05-27 with instantaneous launch opportunities available daily until late June.
CAPSTONE is scheduled to launch between 2022-05-03 and 2022-05-15.
CAPSTONE will be launched from New Zealand on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket with a Lunar Photon upper stage.
Advanced Space held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its Mission Operations Center Facility on 2022-04-01 with a full-size model of the CAPSTONE spacecraft on display.
CAPSTONE was built and tested by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., a Terran Orbital Corporation in Irvine, California.
Advanced Space held an 2022-04-01 ribbon-cutting for its Mission Operations Center Facility that included a full-size CAPSTONE spacecraft model on display.
Advanced Space expected CAPSTONE to reach its lunar destination on or about 2022-09-15.
Advanced Space held a ribbon-cutting on 2022-04-01 for its Mission Operations Center Facility that included a full-size model of the CAPSTONE spacecraft on display.
Advanced Space projected CAPSTONE would reach its lunar destination on or about 2022-09-15.
Terran Orbital expects to deliver the Capstone satellite for NASA in 2022 to serve as a pathfinder for the Lunar Gateway to demonstrate orbital stability and maintenance requirements.
CAPSTONE will test the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) peer-to-peer navigation system developed by Advanced Space.
Rocket Lab planned to deliver CAPSTONE in spring and intended to race Artemis 1 to the pad this spring.
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) is a cubesat mission to test operations in the near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon that will be used by NASA’s Artemis missions, including the lunar Gateway.
NASA scheduled CAPSTONE to launch in March 2022 after the mission had previously been scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021.
Advanced Space completed the fourth in a series of operational readiness tests for CAPSTONE on 2022-02-18, simulating a week of operations in lunar orbit.
CAPSTONE will launch on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket using a version of Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus to send the stage on a lunar trajectory.
Rocket Lab won a NASA contract in 2020 for the launch of the lunar smallsat CAPSTONE.
On 2021-10-13, NASA’s Ames Research Center targeted 2022-03-01 for the launch of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) spacecraft.
CAPSTONE is a 12-unit cubesat developed by Advanced Space to test the stability of the near-rectilinear halo orbit that NASA plans to use for the lunar Gateway.