No description available.
Launch Date
6/1/2022
Launch Site
MAHIA LC1B
,
Launch Vehicle
Electron L (Electron Family)
Rocket Lab planned a Photon mission to the Moon in support of NASA’s CAPSTONE program in 2021.
Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus will deliver CAPSTONE into a trajectory toward the Moon.
CAPSTONE will launch on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle and deploy from Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform.
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.
CAPSTONE will test the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) peer-to-peer navigation system developed by Advanced Space.
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.
Terran Orbital Corporation shipped the CAPSTONE satellite to a launch site on the Māhia Peninsula of New Zealand.
Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus will deliver CAPSTONE into a trajectory toward the Moon.
CAPSTONE will test autonomous navigation software called CAPS, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, using direct measurements with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
CAPSTONE will test autonomous navigation software called CAPS, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System.
Photon will deploy NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat.
CAPSTONE is funded by NASA and operated by Advanced Space, a Colorado-based startup.
Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon stage released the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat at 3:18 a.m. Eastern.
Amateur satellite observer Scott Tilley observed no X-band signals from CAPSTONE on 2022-07-05.
CAPSTONE’s deployment followed six days of orbit-raising burns around Earth aboard Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon spacecraft bus.
Advanced Space operates the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat.
Terran Orbital delivered and supported the launch of NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite for a pathfinder mission as part of the Artemis program.
CAPSTONE collected more than 315,000 measurements from the Deep Space Network including the site at Morehead State University.
CAPSTONE has provided NASA with rapid and low-cost data about operations in NRHO, the orbit planned for the Gateway lunar space station.
CAPSTONE is a privately owned, NASA-funded cubesat operated by Colorado startup Advanced Space.