The Capstone Launch Will Kick Off NASA’s Artemis Moon Program

The plucky little spacecraft is called Capstone, or, more officially, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment. It will be perched atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket scheduled to blast off on June 27 from the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand at 9:50 pm local time (5:50 am EDT). If it can’t launch that day, it’ll have other opportunities between then and July 27.

CAPSTONE on Capitol Hill

Stop by the rotunda of The Russell Senate Office Building this week to learn more about the trailblazing spacecraft that will fly a new path to the Moon.

Terran Orbital Concludes Fleet Space CENTAURI-5 Bus Commissioning

CENTAURI-5 adds capacity, reduces signal delay, and provides additional network redundancy. The 3D printed metal patch antenna satellite is traveling to an expected altitude of 330 miles where it will orbit in the existing Centauri constellation operated by Fleet Space and Terran Orbital. Upgrades from the CENTAURI-4 payload include enhancements that mitigate the effects of radiation in LEO as well as direct communication links to ground stations and an extended S-band range, allowing uplink at standard ground station frequencies.