NASA scraps June 13 launch of CAPSTONE mission to Moon; new date to be revealed soon

NASA revealed in its latest update that it is no longer targeting June 13 to launch its CAPSTONE mission. The launch to the Moon was initially postponed from June 6 and has now been delayed indefinitely. However, the mission might take off later on as the launch window is open till June 22, the agency had said in its previous announcement. “Flight software is being updated. A revised schedule will be provided as soon as possible”, NASA said in its statement.

CAPSTONE is a result of NASA’s collaboration with several companies including the launch provider Rocket Lab. Short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, the CAPSTONE satellite is currently in New Zealand for launch from Rocket Lab's launch site in an Electron rocket.

More about CAPSTONE mission

The mission is basically a pathfinder for NASA's Lunar Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost which is part of NASA’s Artemis program. Besides, NASA also aims to gather data about the elongated and halo-shaped "near rectilinear halo orbit" (NRHO) around the Moon. The agency has chosen the NHRO because it is a "gravitational sweet spot" in space as the gravitational pull of the Earth and the Moon balance each other resulting in a nearly-stable orbit.

The CAPSTONE CubeSat is the size of a microwave oven and will study the lunar orbit for at least six months. During its operation, CAPSTONE will collect data near the Moon as it drifts as far as 76,000 kilometres from the lunar surface and comes as close as 3,400 kilometres over the lunar north pole in a week. Notably, the CubeSat will circle the Moon in the same orbit which has been planned for the Gateway.

After its arrival in New Zealand in mid-May, CAPSTONE was successfully fueled and integrated with the Lunar Photon upper stage by teams from Rocket Lab, Terran Orbital, and Stellar Exploration. The forthcoming lunar mission is extremely crucial for RocketLab as it would be the company's first-ever beyond the low-Earth orbit. The launch service-providing firm is using its 59 feet-tall Electron rocket, which would be the smallest rocket to attempt a launch to the Moon.