NASA's mini-spacecraft CAPSTONE just launched on its journey to the Moon

Rocket Lab has sent NASA's Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) spacecraft on its way to the Moon atop an Electron rocket launched from New Zealand. The launch had been subject to a number of delays, but at 09.55 UTC today, the Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab's …

[Eclectic Man]

Good luck!

Looks like an interesting experiment. had no idea about near rectilinear halo orbits before I read this article. But check out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-rectilinear_halo_orbit

https://blog.maxar.com/space-infrastructure/2019/what-is-cislunar-space-and-a-near-rectilinear-halo-orbit

[Anonymous Coward]

Rocket Lab and NASA

I was following NASA's coverage which so far hasn't included reports of the Lunar Photon. I'll have to switch to Rocket Lab for their more detailed coverage.

So, at this point, two pints for the boffins with more in reserve for the next six burns

[Anonymous Coward]

Fridge and Microwave satellites

Good to hear NASA are planning ahead and sending fridge and microwave satellites to the moon. At least there will be something to eat and drink when we finally get there.

[John Brown (no body)]

Electron rocket, Proton engines...

...it all kinda makes me think they are doing something really cleaver and revolutionary with their engines, like ion propulsion or something. But it's just marketing names.

Good luck to them anyway, but sack the marketing team :-)

[phuzz]

Re: Electron rocket, Proton engines...

The innovative part is that they're using electric pumps to pressurise the fuel going into the engine, which makes it drastically more simple and reliable.

Hence the name 'Electron' for the first stage. As the 1st stage engine is named "Rutherford", and the second stage engine is named "Curie", naming the rockets themselves after elementary particles is an obvious step.