NASA: Launches the tiny spacecraft CAPSTONE to the Moon

THE US Space Agency (NASA) launched one tiny boat under the name CAPSTONE and destination the moon. The boat ia “pave the way” for the return of American astronauts to Moon in a few years – probably in 2024 – under the “Artemis” program, the successor to the “Apollo” program.

The launch was made from New Zealand with a small rocket 18 meters high by the company Rocket Lab. The spacecraft, a 25-kilogram microwave-sized cubic microsatellite, will study for about six months the orbit where NASA plans to build a small lunar space station (Gateway) on which astronauts from Earth will make stop before making their final descent to the surface of the moon.

It is noteworthy that the mission, due to the small size of the missile used and the slow path chosen, it will take several months to reach its prescribed highly elliptical lunar orbit, around mid-November. This orbit will bring CAPSTONE to a distance of 1,600 kilometers (from one pole of the moon) to 70,000 km (from the other lunar pole).