By David
Szondy
July 05, 2022
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Artist's concept of CAPSTONE Photo credit: NASAVIEW 0 IMAGES
According to NASA, the loss of communications occurred on
July 4, 2022, while CAPSTONE was in contact with the space agency's Deep Space
Network (DSN) tracking and communication system designed to support deep space
missions. The blackout came after the spacecraft separated from its Rocket Lab
Photon upper stage booster, which had completed seven engine burns over six
days, sending the robotic probe out of low-Earth orbit and on a four-month
ballistic trajectory to cislunar space.
In a press update, NASA said that the DSN had good
trajectory data for CAPSTONE and that the spacecraft has enough fuel onboard to
allow it to delay a necessary post-separation burn for several days while NASA
engineers try to locate the problem and reestablish radio contact.
Launched on June 28 atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket at the
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand, the 55-lb
(25-kg) CAPSTONE satellite is on a nine-month mission to confirm the stability
of the complex 3D Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) that will be used for the
Gateway space station scheduled to launch in November 2024.
The NRHO does not center on any celestial body, but on a
point in space where the gravitational forces of the Moon and Earth balance one
another out. So far it has only been evaluated in computer simulations, but if
tests prove its stability, it will allow Gateway to act as a staging outpost
for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Source: NASA