To wrap up our mission updates, we present an update on the launch phase of NASA’s CAPSTONE CubeSat to the Moon.

At 07:18 UTC on July 4, the Lunar Photon upper stage released the CubeSat into a ballistic capture trajectory. Between June 28 and July 4, the stage conducted seven burns to put the spacecraft in this orbit. CAPSTONE set many milestones for both Rocket Lab and NASA. The launch was Rocket Lab’s 27th and their first mission to deep space, defined as 150,000 kilometers from Earth according to Jonathan McDowell, astronomer and Twitter Orbital Police.

CAPSTONE was also the heaviest payload launched into orbit by an Electron rocket at 300 kilograms, including the Lunar Photon and CAPSTONE spacecraft.

In one strange but interesting milestone, the Electron’s second stage re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere after only one day, which was probably a result of the very low insertion orbit of about 150 kilometers.

We’ll have further updates about CAPSTONE as the mission progresses, but the initial word is it is not doing well. On July 5, NASA announced the spacecraft experienced a “communications issue” that NASA is still working to understand. The spacecraft can still perform its mission because it has enough fuel to do its first trajectory correction maneuver several days later than planned. That is if they regain contact with it.

More Information

Rocket Lab press release

NASA satellite breaks from orbit around Earth, heads to moon (AP News)

CAPSTONE Update on Communications Issue (NASA)