Posted: Sat, Jul 2, 2022, 12:42 PM ET (1642 GMT)
A Rocket Lab Electron launched a NASA lunar cubesat mission this morning. The Electron lifted off from the company's New Zealand launch site at 5:55 a.m. Eastern and placed into orbit the CAPSTONE cubesat and its Photon kick stage. The Photon will fire its HyperCurie engine several times over the next six days to place CAPSTONE on a trajectory to the moon. CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, will enter the near-rectilinear halo orbit NASA plans to use for Artemis missions in November, testing its stability and as well as autonomous positioning technologies.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  The Verge article
•  AP article
•  New Zealand Herald article
•  NASA press release