Electron | CAPSTONE
Launch Successful
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Instantaneous launch window.
Launch Window
June 28, 2022, 9:55 a.m. - June 28, 2022, 9:55 a.m.
Instantaneous launch window.
June 28, 2022, 9:55 a.m. - June 28, 2022, 9:55 a.m.
CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a 12-U cubesat mission to test operations in near rectiliniar halo orbit around the Moon, which is to be used for the Lunar Gateway space station. Mission will verify the near rectilinear halo orbit characteristics, spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation services in that orbit, and provide valuable experience of small sat launch to the Moon.
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Successful Electron launch. Photon's HyperCurie engine will perform apogee raising burns around every 24 hours for five days, before a final burn on the sixth day to set CAPSTONE on a trans lunar injection
Liftoff
Webcast live
Weather 75%
Adjusting T-0
Electron is a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle (with an optional third stage) developed by the American aerospace company Rocket Lab. Electron is a small-lift launch vehicle designed to launch small satellites and cubesats to sun-synchronous orbit and low earth orbit. The Electron is the first orbital class rocket to use electric-pump-fed engines, powered by the 9 Rutherford engines on the first stage. It is also used as a suborbital testbed (called HASTE) for hypersonics research.
See DetailsBooster expended during its first flight.
Core will be expended.Rocket Lab is an American aerospace manufacturer with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. The company develops lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. The Electron Program was founded on the premise that small payloads such as CubeSats require dedicated small launch vehicles and flexibility not currently offered by traditional rocket systems. Its rocket, the Electron, is a light-weight rocket and is now operating commercially. The company is also producing a variety of spacecrafts and spacecrafts components.
INFO WIKI
NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft is testing software for autonomous operations in cislunar orbit to pave the way for Gateway.
A year after its launch, a privately owned, NASA-funded cubesat orbiting the moon continues to work well, providing data to support the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts.
NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft has completed final maneuvers to place it in its target orbit around the Moon, refining its path in the orbit it arrived to last week.
"That is a huge, huge step for the agency."
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