NASA Restores Contact With CAPSTONE Spacecraft – Prepares for Trajectory Correction Maneuver:
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, is a CubeSat that will fly a unique orbit around the Moon intended for NASA's future Artemis lunar outpost Gateway. Its six-month mission will help launch a new era of deep space exploration. Credit: NASA Ames Research Center
Mission crews for NASA's Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) have re-established contact with the spacecraft via NASA's Deep Space Network after experiencing communications problems.
Data downloaded from CAPSTONE indicate that the spacecraft is in good health and that it operated safely on its own when it was not in communication with Earth. Teams are preparing to perform CAPSTONE's first trajectory adjustment maneuver as early as 11:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. PDT) on July 7. It will more accurately target CAPSTONE's transfer orbit to the Moon. CAPSTONE is still on schedule to arrive in lunar orbit on November 13, as originally planned.
See Yesterday's story: NASA Loses Contact With Just-Launched Spacecraft Headed Toward Moon
[Ed's Comment: AC Friendly withdrawn. You can blame you-know-who for the spamming]
Related Stories
NASA Loses Contact With Just-Launched Spacecraft Headed Toward Moon
NASA has encountered "communication issues" and is attempting to "re-establish contact" with its Moon-bound CAPSTONE satellite, which successfully broke free of Earth's orbit on Monday after launching atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
Though more info is needed, it's a serious problem that could jeopardize the entire mission.
[ . . . . ] Fortunately, not all is lost. The CAPSTONE team has "good trajectory data for the spacecraft based on the first full and second partial ground station pass with the Deep Space Network," according to the update, meaning that scientists will at least know where to look in their attempts to regain communication with the spacecraft.
The spacecraft also has the ability to delay its "trajectory correction maneuver" towards the Moon according to NASA, buying the team "several days" of time.
NASA loses contact with moon-bound CAPSTONE spacecraft
Flight controllers have lost contact with a small pathfinder spacecraft launched last week to test an unusual lunar orbit planned for NASA's Artemis moon program, the agency said Tuesday. Engineers are troubleshooting and attempting to re-establish communications.
Launched last Tuesday from New Zealand atop a Rocketlab Electron rocket, the CAPSTONE spacecraft relied on a compact-but-sophisticated upper stage for thruster firings to repeatedly "pump up" the high point of an increasingly elliptical orbit to the point where it could break free of Earth's gravity and head for the moon.
Those maneuvers went well and CAPSTONE was released from Rocketlab's Photon upper stage early Monday to fly on its own. NASA confirmed successful solar array deployment and an initial communications session. But a second session apparently was cut short for some reason and flight controllers lost contact.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @08:49PM
You may as well just say N1GGER FRIENDLY because you are placing AC posts in that same type of segregated environment.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday July 08 2022, @08:41AM
Anyone know what the comms glitch was?