NASA loses contact with newly launched CAPSTONE satellite

The CAPSTONE satellite launched by NASA on June 28 departed for the moon a little earlier on July 4, but shortly after departure, news of the loss of contact with the ground communication station was reported. NASA is still trying to reconnect with the satellite.

CAPSTONE is a 12U CubeSat whose mission objective is to perform navigation and orbital demonstration work as a pilot test for the Artemis mission and the Lunar Gateway lunar space station. The Lunar Gateway lunar space station is scheduled to launch into a special orbit called a “Near-rectilinear halo orbit” (NRHO), orbiting the Moon-Earth L2 Lagrangian point, not the Earth or the Moon . In this orbit, the gravitational forces of the Earth and the Moon are about equal, so they can be reached with less energy and serve as an outpost for landing on the Moon.

Although NRHO has sufficient theoretical basis, NASA still hopes to demonstrate the stability of this orbit and the fuel consumption required to maintain the orbit, so the CAPSTONE mission is designed as an orbit demonstration and pilot. In addition to determining the feasibility of the orbit, CAPSTONE will also test navigation solely on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) orbiting the moon, rather than a communications station on the Earth’s surface.

CAPSTONE needs an orbit correction on its way to the moon, and NASA says CAPSTONE has enough fuel to delay orbit correction for days without affecting the mission. But if NASA is still unable to communicate with CAPSTONE during these days, then the CAPSTONE mission is not good.