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NASA's CAPSTONE successfully completed its first trajectory correction maneuver, which started at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday. This is the first in a series of thruster burns over the next few months to more accurately target CAPSTONE's transfer orbit to the Moon. The maneuver lasted just over 11 minutes and changed the spacecraft's velocity by about 45 miles per hour (about 20 meters per second). C NASA's CAPSTONE successfully completed its first trajectory correction maneuver, which started at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday. This is the first in a series of thruster burns over the next few months to more accurately target CAPSTONE's transfer orbit to the Moon. The maneuver lasted just over 11 minutes and changed the spacecraft's velocity by about 45 miles per hour (about 20 meters per second). CAPSTONE's next trajectory correction maneuver is targeted for Saturday, July 9.
CAPSTONE is now about 289,000 miles from Earth, beyond the orbit of the Moon. CAPSTONE will loop back around and arrive to its lunar orbit - called a near rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO - Nov. 13. CAPSTONE will fly in the NRHO for at least six months to study the dynamics of the orbit, which is the same one intended for Gateway, a lunar space station for science and human exploration under Artemis.
Two technology demonstrations on CAPSTONE could allow future spacecraft to navigate near the Moon without as much tracking required from Earth.
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NASA's CAPSTONE lunar orbiter leaves Earth orbit
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 5, 2021
The CAPSTONE orbiter left the low Earth orbit on its way to the moon, NASA said in a statement. The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment is attached to Rocket Lab's Photon upper stage, which maneuvered CAPSTONE into position for its journey to the moon. The Photon engine gradually increased its orbit over six days to 810,000 miles from Earth and released the CAPSTONE CubeSat on its trajectory to the moon on Sunday. The spacecraft n ... read more