NASA acquired a dedicated small launch vehicle in 2020 for its CAPSTONE lunar smallsat mission.
Rocket Lab will launch NASA’s CAPSTONE lunar smallsat mission on an Electron rocket no earlier than late 2021.
Tyvak developed and built the spacecraft bus for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE).
CAPSTONE is destined for the same orbit as the lunar Gateway and is scheduled to launch later 2021 on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from New Zealand.
NASA’s CAPSTONE cubesat is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2021 on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from New Zealand.
CAPSTONE will launch on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle and deploy from Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform.
CAPSTONE is a 55-pound satellite created by Advanced Space of Colorado.
Development of CAPSTONE remained on schedule as of early August 2022 with Advanced Space completing the second in a series of operations readiness tests, which were real-time simulations of mission operations.
When Rocket Lab won the NASA contract to launch CAPSTONE in February 2020, Rocket Lab planned to launch the mission from Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia.
Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus will deliver CAPSTONE into a trajectory toward the Moon.
CAPSTONE is scheduled to launch later 2021 on an Electron rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia.
Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft will test technologies needed for the later-2021 launch of NASA’s CAPSTONE lunar spacecraft, which will use Photon as a kick stage.
Rocket Lab planned a Photon mission to the Moon in support of NASA’s CAPSTONE program in 2021.
Lt. Gen. William Liquori was one of the intellectual leaders in the development of the Space Force capstone doctrine titled 'Spacepower.'
Rocket Lab won a contract from NASA in February to launch the CAPSTONE cubesat mission to the moon.
Rocket Lab won the CAPSTONE contract on 2020-02-14 to launch a NASA lunar cubesat mission using an Electron rocket and Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus.
Rocket Lab’s Photon bus will be used to deliver NASA’s CAPSTONE cubesat to the Moon after launch on an Electron rocket next year under a contract awarded to Rocket Lab by NASA on 2020-02-14.
A Rocket Lab Electron will launch the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) from Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia in early 2021.
CAPSTONE is a 25-kilogram satellite being built by Colorado-based Advanced Space under a $13,700,000 contract awarded in September.
Rocket Lab will use Photon, the satellite bus it is developing based on the Electron rocket’s kick stage, to place CAPSTONE on a trajectory to the moon.