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Nov 14, 2022

NASA’s CAPSTONE became the first cubesat mission to ever visit the moon

Posted by in category: satellites

The spacecraft successfully enters lunar orbit.

A toaster oven-sized NASA spacecraft will pave the way for a lunar orbital station that will help the U.S. space agency establish a permanent presence on the moon.

CAPSTONE, the first cubesat mission to ever visit the moon, was launched from New Zealand by a Rocket Lab Electron rocket on June 28 and it was designed to test the stability of the orbit NASA intends to use for its lunar Gateway orbital outpost.


Illustration by NASA/Daniel Rutter.

NASA announced in a blog update that its 55-pound (25-kilogram) CAPSTONE cubesat spacecraft successfully inserted itself into orbit around the moon on Sunday, November 13.

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