No description available.
Launch Date
6/1/2022
Launch Site
MAHIA LC1B
,
Launch Vehicle
Electron L (Electron Family)
CAPSTONE was designed, built, and integrated by Terran Orbital and is owned by Advanced Space.
CAPSTONE aligns with Terran Orbital’s Voyager platform specifications and produces over 100 watts of peak power.
CAPSTONE established more than 350 Deep Space Network contacts, with over 70 of those contacts involving Morehead State University.
The CAPSTONE satellite, based on Terran Orbital’s Voyager platform, entered lunar orbit on 2022-11-17.
A Flight Dynamics System tested on CAPSTONE is appraising the ability to provide rapid-turnaround navigation and maneuver planning for deep space and cislunar missions.
CAPSTONE was launched by Rocket Lab.
NASA awarded a $13,700,000 contract to Advanced Space for development of the CAPSTONE cubesat.
CAPSTONE is a 25-kilogram satellite being built by Colorado-based Advanced Space under a $13,700,000 contract awarded in September.
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.
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.
The CAPSTONE mission was originally slated to launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Virginia but will instead launch from Launch Complex 1 to support a Q4 launch window.
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 will launch the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand in 2021-10-01.
Tyvak developed and built the spacecraft bus for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE).
Rocket Lab will begin payload integration of CAPSTONE with the Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft bus ahead of the launch window opening on 2022-05-31.
Rocket Lab will begin payload integration of CAPSTONE with the Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft bus ahead of the launch window opening on 2022-05-31.
CAPSTONE is planned to launch no earlier than 2022-05-31 aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.
NASA selected Colorado-based Advanced Space to develop the CAPSTONE mission in 2019.
The NASA contract to develop CAPSTONE is valued at $19,980,000.
NASA awarded a $9,950,000 contract to Rocket Lab in 2020 for the CAPSTONE launch.