NASA’s small Capstone probe blasts off to the Moon!

With its satellite placed on top of an Electron rocket, the CAPSTONE mission was able to start this Tuesday, June 28 at 11:55 a.m. from New Zealand. The successful takeoff marks the start of six days of maneuvers in Earth orbit before sending the small 25 kg probe to the Moon. As a child, she does not lack ambition…

For the rocket operator, Rocket Lab, this was the most important launch…yet.

Electron at the rendezvous

Postponed many times, the trip of the CAPSTONE probe (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) was eagerly awaited. This is the first in the long list of lunar missions announced by the US space agency as part of its Artemis program, and the first for NASA in almost a decade since LADEE in 2013!

In many ways, the CAPSTONE mission is very special. For starters, she took off from New Zealand. NASA actually trusted Rocket Lab and its small Electron rocket (only 13 tons, propellant included) to send its 25 kg vehicle to lunar orbit. The takeoff took place from the Mahia peninsula at 11.55 a.m. (Paris), and despite the pressure, everything went very well for this 27^e firing of the Electron rocket, the 4^e This year. The company did not attempt to salvage the first floor.

CAPSTONE is on its way!

Now in orbit, the CAPSTONE probe is still attached to Rocket Lab’s “Lunar Photon” upper stage. And it will last almost a week, because this device, equipped with solar panels, tanks and a HyperCurie engine, will gradually raise its orbit to reach a very elliptical trajectory around the Earth.

After 6 days, a final engine ignition will accelerate the assembly to 39,500 km/h, then eject the probe which will head for the Moon. After a final long ellipse 1.3 million kilometers from Earth, CAPSTONE will return to the Moon and brake to enter a particular NRHO (Near-Reclilinear Halo Orbit) orbit. Very elliptical, the latter will take him between 1,500 and 70,000 kilometers above the lunar surface. It will pass over the two poles, with a particular advantage: that of remaining permanently in sight from the Earth.

Demo mission

The CAPSTONE mission, which will remain in its particular orbit between six months and a year, serves to validate the physical models for the future international lunar station developed under the aegis of NASA (the Lunar Gateway).

Developed on the CubeSat model (a “12U” of 40 x 30 cm), the probe has all the necessary elements for a classic mission, only smaller: solar panels, antennas, propulsion… During its adventure, it will also test different modes of communication with the stations of the “Deep Space Network” of NASA as well as the precision of a relative positioning, by validating its reference by the position of another NASA probe, also around the Moon (and since more than a decade), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. But patience, for that, you will already have to go through the first stages of the mission.

Source : RocketLab