Rocket Lab wins contract for lunar cubesat launch
Posted: Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 8:14 AM ET (1314 GMT)
Rocket Lab has won a NASA contract for the launch of a cubesat mission to the moon. A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch NASA's Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) satellite from Virginia in early 2021. The contract is valued at $9.95 million. On that launch, Rocket Lab's Photon satellite bus will serve as a kick stage, placing CAPSTONE on a trajectory to the moon. CAPSTONE will then use its own propulsion to maneuver into a near-rectilinear halo orbit, the same orbit that the lunar Gateway will use.
Rocket Lab has won a NASA contract for the launch of a cubesat mission to the moon. A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch NASA's Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) satellite from Virginia in early 2021. The contract is valued at $9.95 million. On that launch, Rocket Lab's Photon satellite bus will serve as a kick stage, placing CAPSTONE on a trajectory to the moon. CAPSTONE will then use its own propulsion to maneuver into a near-rectilinear halo orbit, the same orbit that the lunar Gateway will use.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Pentagon dismisses $1.2 trillion cost estimate for Golden Dome
Posted: Sat, May 16 9:36 AM ET (1336 GMT) Cowboy Space proposes 20,000 satellite orbital data center constellation
Posted: Sat, May 16 9:33 AM ET (1333 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Thursday, May 21
A Look Back at Hubble’s Most Breathtaking Images
Nautilus — 5:33 am ET (0933 GMT) Greenlight for next two ESA Scout missions
ESA — 5:33 am ET (0933 GMT) The SpaceX S-1 filing is packed with eye-popping deadlines. Here are the most important ones.
Business Insider — 5:31 am ET (0931 GMT) Germany touts pan-German space command amid European push to supplant US tech
Defense News — 5:30 am ET (0930 GMT) Acquisition reform ‘necessary’ but ‘not sufficient,’ U.S. Space Force official says
Aerospace America — 5:29 am ET (0929 GMT) |
