NASA's tiny lunar probe arrives at the Moon after 4-month journey through space

NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft arrived at its orbit at the Moon Sunday evening after a four-month journey through space, the agency said on Sunday. The spacecraft is now in a special orbit around the Moon, called the near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), the same orbit that will be used by Gateway, the Moon-orbiting space station that will support the agency's upcoming Artemis missions.

CAPSTONE. short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, launched on June 28, 2022, aboard a Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from the company's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.

The mission is owned by Advanced Space on behalf of NASA and operations are performed jointly by teams at Advanced Space and Terran Orbital.

MISSION UPDATE: #CAPSTONE has arrived at the Moon! After a 4-month journey through space, our microwave-oven sized #CubeSat should have now entered the unique elongated orbit that will be used by our future lunar space station, @NASA_Gateway.Learn more: https://t.co/MRFp5bXgGR pic.twitter.com/jrWjeHSP4M

— NASA Ames (@NASAAmes) November 14, 2022

 

What's next?

According to NASA and Advanced Space, in the next five days, CAPSTONE will perform two additional clean-up maneuvers to refine its orbit. Following these maneuvers, the team will review data to confirm that the spacecraft remains on track in the NRHO.

 

#CAPSTONE is at the #Moon! Initial data indicates that insertion into Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) was executed as planned. This week, 2 cleanup maneuvers will ensure the spacecraft was precisely inserted into orbit. Congratulations, CAPSTONE Mission Team!#innovation2orbit pic.twitter.com/5uBwwSsZdy

— Advanced Space (@AdvancedSpace) November 14, 2022