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Mission To The Moon

In 2021 Rocket Lab will launch a CubeSat into lunar orbit for NASA. This historic pathfinding mission supports NASA’s Artemis program which will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.

CAPSTONE

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Lunar Orbit
Mission: Planetary Science

Lunar Orbit Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B Onenui Station, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand Probability: 75%
27 - South Pacific

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.

Telemetry

Launch trajectory and telemetry simulations provided by Flight Club - a rocket launch simulator and orbital trajectory visualiser for all things space!

Updates

Nosu • June 28, 2022, 10:17 a.m.

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


Nosu • June 28, 2022, 9:56 a.m.

Liftoff


Nosu • June 28, 2022, 9 a.m.

Webcast live


Electron

Family: Electron
Configuration:

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 Electron Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    2
  • Max Stage
    3
  • Length
    18.0 m
  • Diameter
    1.2 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    1.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    13 T
  • Thrust
    162 kN
Family
  • Name
    Electron
  • Family
    Electron
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Electron
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $6000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    300 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    225 kg

Booster Info


27


Type: Core
Flight Proven: No
First Flight: June 28, 2022
Last Flight: June 28, 2022
Flights: 1

Landing Information

Booster expended during its first flight.

Core will be expended.

Rocket Lab

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CEO: Peter Beck Founded: 2006 Successes: 37 Failures: 4 Pending: 31

Agency Type: Commercial

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. Electron currently launches from only Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand however a second launch complex in the US is under development.

INFO WIKI

Related News

SpaceNews

CAPSTONE working well more than a year after launch

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

CAPSTONE Forges New Path for NASA’s Future Artemis Moon Missions

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.

Arstechnica

The first cubesat to fly and operate at the Moon has successfully arrived

"That is a huge, huge step for the agency."

SpaceNews

CAPSTONE enters lunar orbit

A NASA-funded cubesat successfully completed a maneuver to enter orbit around the moon Nov. 13.

SpaceNews

CAPSTONE attitude control restored

Engineers have restored normal attitude control of a cubesat bound for the moon nearly a month after suffering a problem during a maneuver.

Onenui Station, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B


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