This month, NASA will launch its CAPSTONE spacecraft to orbit around the moon in preparation for the construction of a lunar space station.

The craft, which is about the size of a microwave and weighs just 55 pounds, will blast off sometime between June 13-22 from M*hia Peninsula, New Zealand.

Prior to Lunar Gateway, NASA's proposed lunar outpost, this will test the stability of a halo-shaped orbit around the moon. Lunar Gateway could become a 'staging area' for landing humans on the moon and serve as a launching pad for missions to Mars.

CAPSTONE: Key stats_Size: 13 x 13 x 25 inches, Weight: 55 pounds, Orbit: Near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), Launch Site: Mahia, New Zealand, Launch date: June 13-22, 2022.

CAPSTONE's launch has been delayed by another week to 'no earlier than June 13', having previously been scheduled for June 6. Previously, the mission was scheduled for May 31 but was pushed back for undisclosed reasons.

Rocket Lab, which is scheduled to launch the satellite into orbit using its Electron booster, said on Twitter that additional time was needed to support final launch preparations. When the small satellite is ready, it will be launched from Rocket Lab's launch facility on New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula, on the North Island.

CAPSTONE stands for 'Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment'. It is unique in that it will travel in an elongated halo-shaped orbit so that it will come within 1,000 miles and as far as 43,500 miles of the lunar surface.

Prior to entering into orbit around the moon, the spacecraft will travel for approximately three to four months using its propulsion system. Every seven days, the spacecraft will make an orbit around the moon.CAPSTONE will take much longer than usual to reach the moon since it is traveling at a slower speed and needs to adjust its route to take account of its unusual oval shape.

The orbit's route is located at a precise balance point in terms of the gravitational pull of the Earth and moon, which result in less energy being expended.'CAPSTONE will behave like it is being held in place by the gravity of Earth and the moon because of the stability of its orbit,' Elwood Agasid at NASA's Ames Research Center told The Next Web.

As a result, it requires little energy to maneuver into other cislunar orbits [those between the earth and the moon], or to maintain its position at orbital altitude. NASA plans to orbit this area for at least six months to understand the orbit's characteristics.

The NASA space agency stated: 'It will validate the power and propulsion requirements for maintaining its orbit as predicted by NASA's models, reducing logistical uncertainties. It will also demonstrate the reliability of innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solutions and communication with Earth.

NASA will have ample time to monitor the results of CAPSTONE after the first parts of the Lunar Gateway are launched in November 2024 at the earliest. Lunar Gateway is a project that will be an essential component of NASA's Artemis programme, and will be a small space station orbiting the moon and acting as a 'multi-purpose outpost'.

The NASA Artemis programme has the official plan to send the first woman and next man to the moon by 2025, although it may be postponed yet again, NASA Investigator General Paul Kelly said.