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Updated June 29th, 2022 at 20:50 IST

Rocket Lab CEO predicts ‘ridiculously low cost’ missions after launching NASA’s CAPSTONE

Rocket Lab launched NASA's CAPSTONE mission from its launch site at New Zealand's Mahia peninsula at 3:36 pm IST on June 28.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
Rocket Lab
Image: Twitter/@RocketLab | Image:self
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Rocket Lab’s CEO Peter Beck has predicted that the launch of NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to the Moon on June 28 could open “ridiculously low cost” planetary missions in the future. Rocket Lab rented its Electron rocket to NASA for its low-cost mission which involves sending a 25 kg CubeSat to test a unique lunar orbit. Speaking at an interview after Electron’s successful liftoff, Beck said that the system used for NASA’s mission can also be used for other high-performance smallsat missions.

“We can go to Mars and to asteroids equally well,” Beck said during the interview as per Space News. “This really is an entirely new system for deep space exploration at just a ridiculously low cost.” The system he is talking about is the one that involves the first stage Electron booster and the Lunar Photon bus in the second stage.

While the first stage Electron pushed the Photon into outer space, it is the Photon, which has the CAPSTONE attached to it and will help the CubeSat enter the lunar orbit. The Photon bus will execute a series of orbit-raising maneuvers in the next five days and eventually detach from the CubeSat after sending it on a ballistic lunar trajectory. 

During the interview, Beck also reflected on Electron’s performance saying that it "gave everything that it could give" during the mission. "We’ve never run the engines as hard as we ran them tonight. We put the Lunar Photon exactly where it needed to be and we had some performance left over in the vehicle", he was quoted saying. He also admitted that the launch was 'next-level had' considering the two-and-a-half years his team put into the mission. 

Rocket Lab aces NASA's pioneering mission

The two-stage Electron lifted off with a total payload of 300 kg from Rocket Lab's launch site in Mahia peninsula in New Zealand at 3:36 pm IST. About ten minutes after the launch, the second stage separated from the Photon, leaving the latter on a journey of its own. The CubeSat, currently attached to Photon, will undergo a four-month-long journey before it enters the Non-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). 

After reaching its destination, CAPSTONE will conduct a six-month-long study to test the feasibility of NRHO. Notably, this mission is being considered a pioneer as it will eventually lead to the next Moon landing later this decade. 

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Published June 29th, 2022 at 20:49 IST

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