Rocket Lab Electron at launch (left) and CAPSTONE rendering in lunar orbit (right)
Recently, the American Rocket Laboratory (Rocket Lab) launched NASA's small CAPSTONE satellite, which marks the several-year "lunar space station" plan Officially launched.
It launched yesterday (June 28) at 5:55 a.m. EDT (0955 GMT; 9:55 p.m. local time) from Launch Site 1 on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula, carrying a rocket Laboratory electronics booster.
The mission will test the stability of the orbit that NASA intends to use to build a "lunar space station." If all goes according to plan, it will go down in history as a key step in NASA's plan to establish and maintain a permanent presence on the moon.
Rocket Lab and NASA launch historic lunar CAPSTONE satellite
The CAPSTONE satellite (short for "Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment") will take a while to reach the moon. Unlike the Apollo missions, which took off on NASA's extremely powerful Saturn V rocket, the tiny CAPSTONE CubeSats were launched on the 59-foot-tall (18-meter) Rocket Lab Electron Launcher, which was used primarily to launch satellites into the air. onto the track.
This means that CAPSTONE, now headed to the moon aboard Rocket Lab's spacecraft Photon, will not reach its intended lunar orbit until after November 13.
The Photon spacecraft carrying CAPSTONE was mounted to the upper stage of the two-stage Electron and separated from the upper stage into low Earth orbit approximately 9 minutes after launch.
The Electron is an amazing spacecraft, and the team behind it even more so. Capstone was the most onerous and difficult task we've done in a long time, but the Electron accomplished the task perfectly.
— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) June 28, 2022
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck wrote on Twitter shortly after launch: “Capstone is the heaviest and heaviest we’ve done in a long time. A difficult task, but the Photon spacecraft completed the task perfectly. " and added that the Photon spacecraft was in low Earth orbit at the time.
The Photon spacecraft will gradually increase its orbital altitude over the next five days through a series of engine burns. On the sixth day after launch, it will undergo a final burn to increase its speed to 24,500 mph (39,500 km/h). This will allow it to escape Earth's orbit and begin its journey to the moon. Approximately 20 minutes after the final burn, the Photon spacecraft will deploy the CAPSTONE cubesat in its lunar orbit.
Over the next few months, the CAPSTONE cubesat will occasionally fire its own thrusters as it makes its slow, energy-efficient journey to the moon. The slow journey is part of NASA keeping the mission relatively low - for a space operation - with a $30 million budget.
Paving the way for NASA's Lunar Space Station program
Once it reaches its intended target, CAPSTONE will insert itself into the Moon's near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). Its journey will eventually take it 810,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) from Earth. This track has not been tested so far. NASA officials believe it is very stable, which means it will be an ideal choice for NASA's future "lunar space station", which will become an important part of its plan to eventually reach Mars.
The gravitational effects of the moon and Earth mean space stationsand spacecraft should not use much fuel to stay in the NRHO. For reference, the International Space Station orbiting the Earth must periodically re-advance its orbit.
Artist's impression of NASA's "Lunar Space Station"
NASA's "Lunar Space Station" will eventually serve as a staging post for manned missions to the moon.NASA recently announced that it aims to send part of an orbiting station to the moon by the end of 2024. Russia and China are each developing their own "lunar space station" plans after the Russian space agency Roscosmos opted out of the Gateway project in partnership with NASA.
It is worth mentioning that in the early stages of NASA's "Lunar Space Station" program, CAPSTONE will stay at NRHO for six months to evaluate its stability.
