NASA’s Return to the Moon Starts With Launching a 55-Pound CubeSat
The full name of the mission is the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment. It will act as a scout for the lunar orbit where a crewed space station will eventually be built as part of Artemis. That outpost, named Gateway, will serve as a way station where future crews will stop before continuing on to the lunar surface.
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.
A tiny spacecraft the size of a microwave could pave the way for a station between Earth and the moon
The miniscule satellite, called a CubeSat, is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds (25 kilograms), but it will be the first to test out a unique, elliptical lunar orbit. The CubeSat will act as a pathfinder for Gateway, an orbiting lunar outpost that will serve as a way station between Earth and the moon for astronauts.
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.
CubeSat Set to Demonstrate NASA’s Fastest Laser Link from Space
NASA primarily uses radio frequency to communicate with spacecraft, but with sights set on human exploration of the Moon and Mars and the development of enhanced scientific instruments, NASA needs more efficient communications systems to transmit significant amounts of data. With more data, researchers can make profound discoveries. Laser communications substantially increases data transport capabilities, offering higher data rates and more information packed into a single transmission.
Cubesats to the Moon
On the evening of Monday, June 13, in New Zealand, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket is scheduled to lift off from the company’s Launch Complex 1. That launch will look like many others by the company except for a prominent white NASA “worm” logo on the side of the booster, an indication that the launch is being performed for the space agency.