CrackitToday App

CAPSTONE Mission

Kumari Sonali

CAPSTONE Mission:

NASA launched CAPSTONE, a microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds (25 kg). CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, is designed to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit.

  • The satellite, launched on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, is heading toward an orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program.
  • As a pathfinder for Gateway, CAPSTONE aims to help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies, and by verifying the dynamics of the halo-shaped orbit.
  • The orbit is known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO).
  • It is significantly elongated, and is located at a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon.
  • This offers stability for long-term missions like Gateway, NASA said on its website.

...Read more on our test console

...Read these too

  • Gaganyaan Mission

    Gaganyaan Mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently successfully conducted the qualification test of Cryogenic Engine for Gaganyaan programme for a duration of 720 seconds at ISRO Propulsion Complex…

  • Chandrayaan-3 Mission

    Chandrayaan-3 Mission:   Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will make its third venture to the Moon through the Chandrayaan-3 mission in August this year. This was stated by Union Minister…

  • Artemis I Mission

    Artemis I Mission: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is about to launch its Artemis Program. Artemis I is an uncrewed mission of NASA. It will test the agency’s Space…