CAPSTONE Launched Tuesday Morning Written 28 June 2022
NASA's CAPTSTONE mission launches from New Zealand, June 28, 2022. | Credit: NASA; YouTube; framegrab
CNET News reports that NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) was launched from the Rocket Lab launch facility in New Zealand on Tuesday, “paving the way for Artemis astronauts to return to the moon in the coming years.” CAPSTONE “will be testing new navigation systems and trying out the halo-shaped orbit around the moon that will one day be occupied by NASA’s Lunar Gateway. The Gateway will be a sort of small space station circling the moon that will be used for staging for Artemis missions to the lunar surface.”
Full Story (CNET News)
Video
Official NASA Broadcast of CAPTSTONE launch from New Zealand, June 28, 2022
(NASA via YouTube)