Watch the Launch

Watch the Launch

Additional Media

Mission To The Moon

In 2021 Rocket Lab will launch a CubeSat into lunar orbit for NASA. This historic pathfinding mission supports NASA’s Artemis program which will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.

CAPSTONE

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Lunar Orbit
Mission: Planetary Science

Lunar Orbit Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand Probability: 75%
27 - South Pacific

CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a 12-U cubesat mission to test operations in near rectiliniar halo orbit around the Moon, which is to be used for the Lunar Gateway space station. Mission will verify the near rectilinear halo orbit characteristics, spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation services in that orbit, and provide valuable experience of small sat launch to the Moon.

Telemetry

Launch trajectory and telemetry simulations provided by Flight Club - a rocket launch simulator and orbital trajectory visualiser for all things space!

Updates

Nosu • June 28, 2022, 10:17 a.m.

Successful Electron launch. Photon's HyperCurie engine will perform apogee raising burns around every 24 hours for five days, before a final burn on the sixth day to set CAPSTONE on a trans lunar injection


Nosu • June 28, 2022, 9:56 a.m.

Liftoff


Nosu • June 28, 2022, 9 a.m.

Webcast live


Jay • June 28, 2022, 2:47 a.m.

Weather 75%


Jay • June 27, 2022, 2:04 p.m.

Adjusting T-0


Electron

Family:
Configuration:

Electron is a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle (with an optional third stage) developed by the American aerospace company Rocket Lab. Electron is a small-lift launch vehicle designed to launch small satellites and cubesats to sun-synchronous orbit and low earth orbit. The Electron is the first orbital class rocket to use electric-pump-fed engines, powered by the 9 Rutherford engines on the first stage. It is also used as a suborbital testbed (called HASTE) for hypersonics research.

See Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    2
  • Max Stage
    3
  • Length
    18.0 m
  • Diameter
    1.2 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    1.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    13.0 T
  • Thrust
    162.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Electron
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Electron
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $6000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    300.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    225.0 kg

Booster Info


27


Type: Core
Flight Proven: No
First Flight: June 28, 2022
Last Flight: June 28, 2022
Flights: 1

Landing Information

Booster expended during its first flight.

Core will be expended.

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab

(RL)

CEO: Peter Beck Founded: 2006 Successes: 92 Failures: 4 Pending: 42

Agency Type:

Rocket Lab is an American aerospace manufacturer with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. The company develops lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. The Electron Program was founded on the premise that small payloads such as CubeSats require dedicated small launch vehicles and flexibility not currently offered by traditional rocket systems. Its rocket, the Electron, is a light-weight rocket and is now operating commercially. The company is also producing a variety of spacecrafts and spacecrafts components.

INFO WIKI
SpaceNews

NASA selects successor to CAPSTONE lunar mission

NASA has selected Advanced Space to fly a successor to a cislunar smallsat mission that will test rendezvous and proximity operations around the moon. The post NASA selects successor to CAPSTONE lunar mission appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA

NASA’s CAPSTONE Completes Extended Mission Testing Lunar Technologies

As NASA prepares for a sustained human presence on the Moon, missions will increasingly require spacecraft that can navigate and communicate without a direct connection to Earth. NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Ope…

SpaceNews

NASA’s CAPSTONE is testing “Autopilot” software suite for cislunar operations

NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft is testing software for autonomous operations in cislunar orbit to pave the way for Gateway.

SpaceNews

CAPSTONE working well more than a year after launch

A year after its launch, a privately owned, NASA-funded cubesat orbiting the moon continues to work well, providing data to support the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts.

NASA

CAPSTONE Forges New Path for NASA’s Future Artemis Moon Missions

NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft has completed final maneuvers to place it in its target orbit around the Moon, refining its path in the orbit it arrived to last week.

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B


Long March 2D
Success
6 hours, 5 minutes ago
PIESAT-2 13-16
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.


Electron
Success
13 hours, 33 minutes ago
Owl By The Dozen (StriX Launch 12)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
2 days ago
Glonass-K1 No. 20 (?)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Satellite serial number and Cosmos designation not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite n…


Kuaizhou 11
Success
2 days, 14 hours ago
SpaceTY-51 & 52
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

2 Earth observation radar satellites built by the Chinese satellite manufacturer SpaceTY.


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 15 hours ago
USSF-259
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

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Long March 12
Success
2 days, 16 hours ago
SatNet LEO Group 25
Commercial LC-2 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Soyuz 2.1b
Success
3 days, 3 hours ago
Progress MS-35 (96P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Gravity-1
Success
3 days, 18 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #16
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with …


Zhuque-2E Block 2
Success
4 days, 10 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #15
Launch Area 96A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

10 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with…


Vega-C
Success
4 days, 15 hours ago
Sentinel-3C & FLEX
Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV) - Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Sentinel-3 constellation, which provides high-accuracy optical, radar and altimetry data for marine and lan…