CAPSTONE Count Down – Just 2 Weeks Away From Moon Arrival

Advanced Space Data Analysis Shows Recent Trajectory Maneuver was Successful

Westminster, CO (October 31, 2022) Advanced Space LLC., a leading space tech solutions company with breakthrough navigation technology, completed its fourth trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) for CAPSTONE on Thursday. TCM-4 was the fourth of six planned maneuvers en route to the Moon, targeting the precise orbit for the CAPSTONE demonstration. This follows the restoration of the spacecraft’s capabilities as it has recovered from the anomaly that occurred after TCM-3.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, CAPSTONE, spacecraft mission will test the lunar Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) that is the intended orbit for Gateway, a lunar space station that will support NASA’s Artemis program, making CAPSTONE the first milestone launch of the Artemis program. The primary mission is planned for at least 6 months of operations orbiting the Moon, with enhanced mission opportunities in the following 12 months.  CAPSTONE has already contributed insights with shared navigation and operational data to the Artemis I rideshare payloads that will assist them in their mission operations.

Recently, the Deep Space Network (DSN) performed a test with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to confirm that LRO could receive and return the signal CAPSTONE will be using to interact with the spacecraft as part of the CAPS software demonstrations once it arrives at the Moon.

“The CAPSTONE team at Advanced Space, Terran Orbital, and their partners has shown great resilience over the past several weeks. Now, as CAPSTONE approaches lunar orbit, we are looking forward to getting into more of the technology demonstrations that are part of this mission and gathering operational data with the spacecraft in orbit at the Moon,” said Christopher Baker, program executive for the Small Spacecraft Technology program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. “CAPSTONE is a great example of the work we can do with our commercial partners, small businesses, and small spacecraft.”

CAPSTONE launched on June 28th. It is a 12U, 55-pound CubeSat built by Terran Orbital. Using a fuel-efficient Ballistic Lunar Transfer (BLT) method, CAPSTONE’s journey from launch to lunar orbit is a total of four months. A key feature of the BLT is that the mission operations and commissioning have the time during transit to evaluate performance and complete thorough check-out of systems before arriving at the Moon. As expected, the cruise thus far has focused on preparing the spacecraft for its mission at the Moon.

“This TCM confirms the preparation, extensive analysis, teams working together and continued hard work to allow this mission to remain successful, especially following the recent anomaly,” said Alec Forsman, Systems Engineering Lead and Mission Operations Manager for CAPSTONE at Advanced Space, “Every activity provides many lessons learned before our arrival at the Moon. These experiences better prepare the team for lunar operations.”

Some numbers from the TCM include:

• Maneuver telemetry shows that the spacecraft propulsion system fired for the nominal duration of approximately 220 seconds.
• At the time of maneuver execution, the spacecraft was approximately 308,076 miles or 495,800 km from the Earth (~14 times further than the GEO belt and ~69,200 miles or 111,400 km further than the Moon).
• CAPSTONE has been flying solo in space for over 100 days (125 days since launch, 119 days since separation).

A primary mission objective is to demonstrate autonomous spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation services that will allow future spacecraft to determine their location in space without relying exclusively on tracking from Earth. This technology was developed by Advanced Space and is called CAPS™, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System.

About CAPSTONE™:  CAPSTONE Press Kit

CAPSTONE™ is owned and operated by Advanced Space. It will be one of the first CubeSats to fly in cislunar space – the orbital area near and around the Moon – and demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation technology. The mission launched on June 28, 2022. Critical partners in the CAPSTONE mission include:

• NASA: CAPSTONE’s development is supported by the Space Technology Mission Directorate via the Small Spacecraft Technology and Small Business Innovation Research programs at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The Artemis Campaign Development Division within NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate supported the launch and mission operations. NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida was responsible for launch management. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supported the communication, tracking, and telemetry downlink via NASA’s Deep Space Network, Iris radio design and groundbreaking 1-way navigation algorithms.
• Terran Orbital Corporation: Spacecraft design, development and implementation, hardware manufacturing, assembly, testing and mission operations support.
• Stellar Exploration: Propulsion subsystem provider.
• Rocket Lab USA, Inc.: Launch provider for CAPSTONE on a three-stage Electron launch vehicle.
• Space Dynamics Lab (SDL): Iris radio and navigation firmware provider.
• Orion Space Solutions (formerly Astra): Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) hardware provider necessary for the 1-way ranging experiment.
• Tethers Unlimited, Inc.: Cross Link radio provider.
• Morehead State University (MSU): Operates an affiliated node on the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). Providing telemetry, tracking and control services for NASA and commercial space missions and to engage university students in deep space mission operations.