CAPSTONE: The Story So Far

After decades of delays and false starts, NASA is finally returning to the Moon. The world is eagerly awaiting the launch of Artemis I, the first demonstration flight of the Orion Space Launch System and multi-purpose vehicle, which combined will send humans out of low Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. But it's delayed.

While the first official Artemis mission understandably gets all the attention, the space agency plans to do more than put a new set of boots on the surface - their long-term goals include the "Lunar Gateway" space station which will will be the rallying point for the sustained exploration of our closest celestial neighbor.

But before launching humanity's first space station, NASA wants to make sure that the unique near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) in which it will operate is as stable as computer modeling has predicted. Step into the operating and navigating experience of Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, or CAPSTONE, technology.

CAPSTONE in the clean room before launch.

Launched aboard an Electron rocket in June, the large CubeSat will hopefully become the first spacecraft to enter an NRHO. By positioning itself so that the gravity of the Earth and Moon influence it equally, maintaining its orbit should only require periodic position corrections. This would not only reduce the maintenance burden of adjusting the Lunar Gateway's orbit, but also reduce the station's thruster requirements.

CAPSTONE is also set to test an experimental navigation system that uses the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) as a reference point instead of ground stations. In a future where spacecraft regularly buzz around the Moon, it will be important to establish a navigation system that does not rely on terrestrial inputs to function.

So, despite its relatively meager $30 million cost and roughly the size of a microwave oven, CAPSTONE is a very important mission for NASA's grand lunar aspirations. Unfortunately, things haven't gone as planned so far. The problems began just days after takeoff, and at the time of this writing, the outcome of the mission is still very much in jeopardy.

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket performed flawlessly during the June 28 launch, after which the third stage of booster "kick" began a series of engine burns to gradually increase its orbit. After firing the engine six times in as many days, the startup stage performed the final trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn before releasing CAPSTONE on July 4. This set the craft on a low-energy ballistic trajectory to the Moon, which would be refined with a series of small course correction maneuvers over the four months of travel.

After entering the free flight phase of the mission, CAPSTONE extended its solar panels to begin charging its batteries and stabilized in preparation for the first course correction scheduled for the following day. But shortly after communicating with NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on Earth...