It is barely a day after CAPSTONE’s departure from Earth’s orbit. Since its launch on June 28, the ship had been orbiting the planet, while Rocket Lab was in charge of positioning it at the final destination before its departure in the direction of the Moon. However, on July 5, just a day later, NASA confirms that it has lost all communication with the ship.
Sara Frazier, NASA spokesperson, wrote an email confirming the event a Space. The aforementioned comments that they are trying to understand the situation, as well as to resume contact with the lunar orbiter.
The spacecraft team is currently working to understand the cause and restore contact. The team has good spacecraft trajectory data based on the ground station’s first full pass and second partial pass with the Deep Space Network.
Sara Frazier, NASA spokesperson
Frazier adds that, if necessary, the mission has enough fuel “to delay the initial trajectory correction maneuver.” This stage is after the separation of the orbiter with the rocket that took it to its point. Also, he claims that They will be reporting in the next few days. or as soon as possible.
Fortunately for NASA, the initial communications between CAPSTONE and its headquarters allow them to know the trajectory of the ship. That is, at least they know where to look with the Deep Space Network antennas, which they use to communicate with the orbiter.
NASA doesn’t have all the time in the world.
Of course, the space agency has the task of solving this problem as soon as possible. CAPSTONE is well on its way to the Moon. Although at the moment the incidence of terrestrial, solar and lunar gravity, allow the ship to follow its correct courseNASA would still need to make some revisions for it to successfully reach its destination: the Moon.
According to Frazier, these maneuvers could be delayed a few days if absolutely necessary. However, ideally, NASA would be able to re-contact the orbiter before fuel reserves run out.
More details about CAPSTONE
For its part, CAPSTONE represents the beginning of one of NASA’s greatest adventures. After a four month trip, the spacecraft is expected to be inserted into the orbit of the Moon around the next 13th of November. Once here, it will fly some 3,400 kilometers to the satellite’s North Pole at its closest point. The farthest, however, would be to the South Pole, at about 76,000 kilometers. This cycle will repeat itself every six and a half days for six months.
CAPSTONE is a pioneer in many ways and will demonstrate several technological capabilities during its mission time frame while sailing in a never-before-flown orbit around the Moon. CAPSTONE is laying the foundation for Artemis, Gateway and commercial support for future lunar operations.
POT
With these data, NASA plans to check the stability of the lunar orbit. The reason? Build the first Lunar space station, under the name of Gateway, and that would be part of the Artemisa mission. Until now, these types of missions have no precedent, so they would mark a before and after in space missions.