The spacecraft will study for about six months the orbit where NASA plans to build a small lunar space station, where astronauts from Earth will stop before making their final descent to the moon.
The US space agency (NASA) launched a tiny boat named CAPSTONE and destined for the moon. The boat will “pave the way” for return of American astronauts to the Moon in a few years – probably in 2024 – under the “Artemis” program, successor to the “Apollo” program.
The launch was made by New Zealand with a small rocket 18 meters high of Rocket Lab. The ship, a cubic micro-satellite that has microwave oven size and weight 25 kgwill study for about six months the orbit where NASA plans to create a small lunar space station (Gateway), where astronauts from Earth will stop before making their final descent to the surface of the moon.
It is noteworthy that the mission, due to the small size of the rocket used and the slow path chosen, will take several months to reach its prescribed highly elliptical lunar orbit, around mid-November. This orbit will bring CAPSTONE to a distance of 1,600 km (from one pole of the moon) to 70,000 km (from the other lunar pole).
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