The launch services contract for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) has been awarded to Rocket Lab USA Inc.Under the 9.95 million deal,the company will launch CAPSTONE on its Electron rocket from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility,Virginia.RL's Photon platform will then insert the CAPSTONE CubeSat into a trans-lunar injection,enabling it to venture to the Moon and achieve cislunar orbit on its own,a spaceflight that will take three months.
CAPSTONE will verify the characteristics of a near-rectilinear orbit for future missions and conduct a navigation demonstration with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.According to Marshall Smith,NASA's director of human exploration programs:
CAPSTONE is a rapid,risk-tolerant demonstration that sets out to learn about the unique,seven-day cislunar orbit we are also targeting for Gateway (the small space station that will serve as a platform for missions exploring the Moon and Mars).*
Advanced Space of Boulder,Colorado will develop and operate the CubeSat,and Tyvak Satellite Systems of Irvine,California will assist by building and testing CAPSTONE.*
CAPSTONE is scheduled for an early 2021 launch from the new Rocket Lab launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) within NASA Wallops.*
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