NASA’s CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a CubeSat mission designed to test and verify the calculated orbital stability and navigation capabilities around the Moon. Launched in June 2022, CAPSTONE orbits the Moon in a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), the same orbit planned for the Lunar Gateway—a future moon-orbiting outpost under NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustainable presence there.
Following a communications issue that began in late January, NASA’s CAPSTONE – short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment – is…
Does anything orbit the Moon? Yes, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and a handful of other active spacecraft are currently orbiting the Moon. One of the…
NASA’s CAPSTONE spacecraft arrived at its orbit at the Moon Sunday evening, as confirmed by the CAPSTONE mission operations team. The microwave oven–sized CubeSat completed…
Today, November 13, CAPSTONE will reach the Moon and become the first spacecraft to enter into a unique, elongated orbit that will support NASA’s Artemis…
On Thursday, October 27, CAPSTONE successfully completed a trajectory correction maneuver, teeing up the spacecraft’s arrival to lunar orbit on November 13. CAPSTONE is no…
On Friday, October 7, CAPSTONE team members successfully executed an operation to stop the spacecraft’s spin. This clears a major hurdle in returning the spacecraft…
On September 8, the CAPSTONE spacecraft executed a planned trajectory correction maneuver. An issue occurred near the end of that maneuver that put CAPSTONE into…
On the evening of September 8, the CAPSTONE spacecraft executed a planned trajectory correction maneuver. Near the end of that maneuver an issue occurred that…
On Thursday evening, September 8, the CAPSTONE spacecraft executed a planned trajectory correction maneuver. Near the end of that maneuver, CAPSTONE went into safe mode….
Following the recent update on CAPSTONE, mission owner and operator Advanced Space has released an update on the situation. Read the full mission update from…
On Thursday evening, September 8, the CAPSTONE spacecraft executed a planned trajectory correction maneuver. CAPSTONE mission controllers have since obtained telemetry confirming that an issue…
NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) successfully completed its third trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) on Monday, July 25. CAPSTONE is…
NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) spacecraft successfully completed its second trajectory correction maneuver starting at about 11:30 a.m. EDT…
After losing communications with CAPSTONE on July 4, the first trajectory correction maneuver, which was originally scheduled for the morning of July 5th, had to…
Mission Team Determines Cause of NASA’s CAPSTONE Communications Issues After its launch on June 28, CAPSTONE orbited Earth attached to Rocket Lab’s Photon upper stage,…
Mission operators have re-established contact with NASA’s CAPSTONE spacecraft. Mission crews for NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) have re-established…
Following successful deployment and start of spacecraft commissioning on July 4, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) spacecraft experienced communications…
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE), a small CubeSat, about the size of a microwave oven and weighing just 55…