In June 2022, NASA launched a CubeSat weighing just 25 kg on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. The CubeSat CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, is designed to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit. The orbit, known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), is highly elongated, and is located at a precise balance point in the gravities of the Earth and the Moon. This offers stability for long-term missions. It will take four months for CAPSTONE to reach the Moon, cruising along using minimal energy, after which the satellite will orbit around the Moon for at least six months to understand the characteristics of the orbit, according to NASA.
NASA plans to put a space station called Gateway into the orbital path, from which astronauts can descend to the surface of the Moon as part of its Artemis program. CAPSTONE is to be a pathfinder for Gateway, aimed at helping to reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies, and by verifying the dynamics of the halo-shaped orbit.
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