Copernical Team
NASA's CAPSTONE probe overcomes malfunction, reaches orbit around the moon
NASA's CAPSTONE CubeSat probe arrived in orbit around the moon Sunday night in a major win for the space agency following a major engine malfunction over the summer that nearly derailed the mission.
CAPSTONE had to fire its engines twice more to get back to the moon, where it entered a highly elliptical near rectilinear halo orbit or NRHO about 7:39 p.m., NASA said.
The U.S. spac Beyond Gravity passes CDR for critical mechanism for NASA's Gateway
The Gateway space station, an essential element of NASA's Artemis program, will serve as humanity's first space station in lunar orbit supporting crewed and uncrewed missions to the surface of the Moon and future deep space exploration missions.
NASA contracted Maxar, a provider of comprehensive space solutions and secure, precise, geospatial intelligence, to manufacture the PPE, which wil Advanced Space leads Lunar pathfinder efforts for NASA
Advanced Space LLC., a leading space tech solutions company, announced CAPSTONE successfully completed the initial insertion maneuver into a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) on Sunday, November 13th. Two smaller correction maneuvers will take place this week to ensure the spacecraft is confirmed into the complex lunar orbit.
This NRHO is an orbit around the Moon that has never been flown NASA returning to the Moon with mega rocket launch
Third time's the charm?
After two failed attempts, NASA plans to launch its new mega Moon rocket early Wednesday from Florida, less than a week after the massive machine withstood a hurricane.
"Our time is coming. And we hope that that is on Wednesday," said Mike Sarafin, the manager of the much-delayed Artemis 1 mission, at NASA headquarters.
The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight wit Phantom Space conducts successful stage hot fire test for new rocket
Phantom Space Corporation (Phantom), a space applications company providing launch services and satellite manufacturing to business and government clients, has announced a successful stage hot fire test at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Phantom's pathfinder test stage, equipped with a single Hadley engine supplied by Ursa Major, completed a 60 second hot fire test to validate first and s AFRL awards contract for pioneering spacecraft in region of Moon
The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $72 million contract to Advanced Space LLC to demonstrate space situational awareness, object detection and tracking in the region of the Moon, supporting a resurgence of interest in lunar exploration and development across civil, commercial and international space agencies.
AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate awarded the contract to support th ESA experiences COP27 using a space-empowered metaverse

ESA has created a space-inspired virtual environment to enable its workforce to experience the COP27 climate summit – which is being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt – without the environmental cost of travelling.
Strong European support for space to combat climate crisis

Europe should demonstrate responsibility, leadership and autonomy in space – and its highest priority should be to address climate change, according to a poll of European citizens.
Moon rocket launch looms as NASA evaluates hurricane damage

NASA started the countdown Monday for this week's planned liftoff of its new moon rocket, although hurricane damage could cause yet another delay for the test flight.
Hurricane Nicole's high winds caused a 10-foot (3-meter) section of caulking to peel away near the crew capsule at the top of the rocket last Thursday. Mission managers want to make sure the narrow strip won't damage the rocket if it breaks off during liftoff.

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ESA Extremes