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CAPSTONE Uses Gravity on Unusual, Efficient Route to the Moon

CAPSTONE is planned to launch no earlier than May 31 aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The CubeSat will start its mission joined with the Lunar Photon, an interplanetary third stage developed by Rocket Lab.

Rocket Lab Begins Payload Integration for CAPSTONE Mission to the Moon

CAPSTONE will be launched to an initial low Earth orbit by Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle and then placed on a ballistic lunar transfer by Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon spacecraft bus. Unlike the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 70s, which took a free return trajectory to the Moon, this fuel efficient ballistic lunar transfer makes it possible to deploy CAPSTONE to such a distant orbit using a small launch vehicle.

Little CAPSTONE cubesat ready to launch on big moon mission next month

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment — mercifully called CAPSTONE for short — tips the scales at a modest 55 pounds (25 kilograms). This microwave-oven-sized spacecraft will be lofted from New Zealand aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket equipped with a Lunar Photon upper stage.

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Artificial Moon: Satellites Past, Present, and Future with Marc Bell, CEO of Terran Orbital – The Cosmic Companion 15 March 2022

This week on The Cosmic Companion, we look at satellites, the artificial moons orbiting the Earth and other worlds. We will explore the history of satellites.
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Terran Orbital Taps into Booming Small Satellite Market

one of the more noteworthy recent wins, Terran Orbital subsidiary PredaSAR Corporation was awarded a $2 million contract to support an on-orbit cooperative demonstration between its PredaSAR satellite constellation and the U.S. government’s Blackjack satellite constellation.
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Leadership Chat: Terran Orbital CEO Marc Bell

On today’s podcast we welcome special guest, Terran Orbital CEO and Chairman Marc Bell. Terran Orbital is a pioneer in the development, innovation and operation of small satellites and earth observation solutions.
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CAPSTONE lunar cubesat mission to launch this spring

The spacecraft is nearly ready for launch. “We are at a really critical stage for the mission. The hardware is all together and is going into testing,” Brad Cheetham, chief executive of Advanced Space, said during a panel at the 24th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference Feb. 17.
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