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CAPSTONE, NASA's micro spacecraft, now flies independently to the moon
Science

CAPSTONE, NASA's micro spacecraft, now flies independently to the moon

It is now up to NASA's CAPSTONE to travel to the moon on its own. This year's Earth's celestial companion will be reached by the 55-pound CAPSTONE microsatellite, which finished its last burn on Monday.

In the complex operation, the microwave-sized CAPSTONE spacecraft had to complete the burn without breaking apart from the Photon spacecraft bus after its launch on June 28. 

A NASA-operated mission was launched into space atop an Electron rocket built by Rocket Lab, the small satellite launcher company.

An official YouTube Livestream as well as tweets and Facebook posts celebrated the milestone burn, which took place at 2:56 a.m. EDT.

The CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck, posted on Twitter: 'I feel like something epic needs to be said, but I can only say perfect moon mission success.'

It is expected that the Photon-CAPSTONE duo will reach 24,500 mph (39,400 kph) before separation during the final burn. 

As the CubeSat travels over four months, it may reach as far as 810,000 miles million from Earth before returning to Earth and the moon through gravity.

Since Electron is only 59 feet tall and has a small fuel tank compared to other boosters, engineers chose a long and winding path for CAPSTONE. As CAPSTONE moves into a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon on Nov. 13, a major milestone will be achieved.

As CAPSTONE progresses along the path, which will serve as a testing ground for NASA's upcoming Gateway space station, it will approach the moon within 1,000 miles, and zoom nearly 43,500 miles from the surface.

As no spacecraft has ever occupied a lunar NRHO before, CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) will be a significant pathfinder for Gateway.

Since astronauts will use Gateway to run surface missions to the moon if it shows stability in this orbit, it will be a keystone in the Artemis lunar exploration program.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been photographing the moon in HD since 2009, will also be connected to the CAPSTONE spacecraft during its navigation and communications test.

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