Skip to main content

NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite maneuver sends spacecraft on its way to lunar orbit

NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite is on its way to orbit around the moon, following a software issue that caused it to lose contact with Earth this week. Launched on June 28, NASA announced it was having communications issues with the satellite on July 5. Communications were re-established by July 6, and now the satellite has performed its first targeting maneuver.

The satellite is testing out an unusual orbit around the moon which could be used for the planned Gateway space station. Called a near rectilinear halo orbit, this curved orbit brings the satellite close to the moon at some times while being further away than others. Its advantage is that it requires very little energy to keep an object in the orbit, making it ideal for a space station. CAPSTONE’s task is to test whether this orbit is a good potential orbit for the future station.

Illustration of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE). Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems

To be inserted into this orbit, the satellite has to make a series of maneuvers in which it fires thrusters to adjust its trajectory. The first of these maneuvers was  Thursday morning.

Recommended Videos

“NASA’s CAPSTONE successfully completed its first trajectory correction maneuver, which started at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday,” NASA wrote in an update. “This is the first in a series of thruster burns over the next few months to more accurately target CAPSTONE’s transfer orbit to the Moon. The maneuver lasted just over 11 minutes and changed the spacecraft’s velocity by about 45 miles per hour (about 20 meters per second). CAPSTONE’s next trajectory correction maneuver is targeted for Saturday, July 9.”

The transfer the satellite is following is different from the usual Hohmann transfer, in which an object spirals out in its orbit around the Earth until it ends up in orbit around the moon. Instead, CAPSTONE is using a ballistic transfer that follows the gravitational contours of space as affected by the Earth, the moon, and the sun. This method uses very little fuel but takes longer, so CAPSTONE will take several months to reach the moon.

CAPSTONE is scheduled to arrive at its near rectilinear halo orbit around the moon on 13 November this year.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Zoom over the surface of the moon in new Blue Ghost low lunar orbit footage
Still from Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, captured during its third lunar orbit maneuver on February 24.

Just ahead of a planned lunar landing this weekend, Firefly Aerospace has shared more gorgeous footage from its Blue Ghost mission. Currently in low lunar orbit, the spacecraft is passing within 60 miles of the moon's surface and has captured a stunning video as it sweeps over the surface of the moon.

"Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captured more incredible footage of the Moon during its third lunar orbit maneuver on February 24 that inserted the spacecraft in a near-circular low lunar orbit," Firefly wrote in an update. "The video below, sped up by 10X, was taken about 100 km above the lunar surface, showing the far side of the Moon and a top-down view of Blue Ghost’s RCS thrusters (center) and radiator panels on each side. The radiator panels are moving nominally to protect Blue Ghost’s subsystems from extreme temperatures."

Read more
How to watch NASA launch its cosmic detective mission, SPHEREx
NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), a space telescope, is situated on a work stand ahead of prelaunch operations at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.

Update: The launch has been moved to Thursday, March 4. NASA states, "The teams need additional time to evaluate launch vehicle hardware data." The article has been updated accordingly.

This coming week sees the launch of a new NASA astrophysics mission, SPHEREx. This space telescope will investigate the origins of the universe, looking at how everything that exists went from being a tiny dot in the milliseconds after the big bang to being trillions of times that size.

Read more
Humanity is about to break another space record with lunar launch this week
The Intuitive Machines IM-2 lander ahead of launch.

This week will see a new record in space exploration as Intuitive Machines launches its Athena lunar lander for its IM-2 mission. It will join Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience, both currently in space, marking the first occasion that three lunar landers have been on their way to the moon at the same time.

“Humanity has never witnessed three lunar landers enroute to the Moon at the same time, and Athena is ready to rise to the occasion,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, in a statement. “This profound opportunity to make history isn’t solely built on technology – it’s established through the relentless dedication of our people, who have turned the company’s words about a reliable cadence of lunar missions into action.”

Read more