CAPSTONE

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

CAPSTONE is a 25 kg CubeSat owned and operated by the company Advanced Space, which flew it for NASA. It was launched on a Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand on 28 June 2022 and spent four months travelling to the Moon on a long, looping route, recovering on the way from a tumble caused by a partly open thruster valve. On 14 November 2022 it entered a near-rectilinear halo orbit, a stretched loop shaped by the pull of both Earth and the Moon that passes about 1,600 km over one lunar pole and some 70,000 km over the other every seven days. It was the first spacecraft to fly this orbit, the one NASA plans for its Gateway station, and it tested navigating by ranging to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA's part of the mission ended in June 2026, after nearly four years. Advanced Space may still be operating the spacecraft, but that is unconfirmed. (Its position here is JPL Horizons', whose trajectory runs to 14 August 2026, so the map draws it only to that date.)

1. 2022CAPSTONE launches on a Rocket Lab Electron rocketLaunch

   From New Zealand.

2. 2022On its way to the MoonMilestone

   Released from the rocket's Lunar Photon stage for a four-month journey.

3. 2022A tumble, and a recoveryMilestone

   A partly open thruster valve sets it tumbling; controllers steady it over the following weeks.

4. 2022Into its halo orbitArrival

   The first spacecraft in the orbit NASA plans for its Gateway station.

5. 2026NASA's part of the mission endsMission end

   Advanced Space may still be operating the spacecraft; that is unconfirmed.

6. 2026Tracking data endMilestone

   JPL's trajectory for CAPSTONE stops here, and so does its place on the map.

Images

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