NASA selected Rocket Lab to launch its Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) CubeSat.
The 55-pound miniaturized satellite will fly into orbit on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle.
After launch, CAPSTONE takes about three months to enter its target orbit around the Moon and Earth, at which point it will begin a half-year primary demonstration phase, reaching as close as 1,000 miles and as far as 43,500 miles from the pockmarked surface.
The mission is targeted for launch in early 2021; it will be the second lunar mission leaving from Virginia.
“This mission is all about quickly and more affordably demonstrating new capabilities, and we are partnering with small businesses to do it,” according to Christopher Baker, small spacecraft technology program executive at NASA.
Illustration of NASA’s CAPSTONE CubeSat (via NASA)
“This is true from the perspective of CAPSTONE’s development timeline, operational objectives, navigation demonstration, and its quickly procured commercial launch aboard a small rocket,” he added.
Among other information, CAPSTONE will demonstrate how to enter into and operate within this orbit, as well as test a new navigation capability. Collected data will help reduce uncertainties ahead of future missions to the Moon.
“Small satellites like CAPSTONE will play a crucial role in supporting the return of human missions to the Moon and we’re proud to be supporting NASA in this unique and pivotal mission,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement.
“In the same way we opened access to low-Earth orbit for small satellites,,” he continued, “we’re proud to be bringing the Moon within reach to enable research and exploration.”
Rocket Lab’s firm-fixed-price launch contract is valued at $9.95 million. In September, NASA awarded a $13.7 million contract to Advanced Space of Boulder, Col., to develop and operate the CubeSat.
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