Capstone is about the same size as a microwave oven and explores a specific orbit (Image: Rocket Lab via AP)

NASA has launched a small spacecraft from New Zealand. This is the first step in the space agency’s plan to send astronauts to the moon in a few years.

At 10:55 am local time on Tuesday, a 59-foot-tall rocket carried by a spacecraft called Capstone blasted off from a launch site on New Zealand’s east coast.

The cornerstone, about the size of a microwave oven, explores a specific orbit where NASA will build a small space station for astronauts to stop at before and after the moon rises.

The official name of the mission is Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE). Small spacecraft goes to the Moon for the first time in a year.

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The spacecraft are relatively inexpensive, costing less than $30 million, and were launched by Rocket Lab, an American and New Zealand company.

Capstone, the CubeSat, is a class of research spacecraft called a nanosatellite that acts as a gateway to planned orbits. This is a lunar space station that supports NASA’s Artemis program.

The microsatellite will help mitigate risk to future spacecraft by demonstrating innovative navigation technology and testing unique halo-like orbital mechanics.

Capstone plans “a rare and effective route to the moon.” According to NASA, the only linear halo orbit around the moon has “balance, balance, balance.”

nasa moon

The spacecraft costs less than $30 million and was launched by Rocket Labs, an American and New Zealand company (Photo: NASA).

CubeSat’s route allows you to really go back and relax in the gravitational sweet spot of the universe, where the gravity of Earth and the Moon interact in a nearly stable orbit – physics does that. moon orbit.

NASA has big plans for this unique type of orbit. Engineers hope this will allow larger spacecraft (including lunar orbit gateways) to remain suspended in lunar orbit for about 15 years.

Viewed from Earth, Capstone’s orbit follows a continuous ellipse around the Moon as the spacecraft moves from the Moon’s North Pole to the Moon’s South Pole.