Friday, July 1, 2022

Rocket Lab: NASA Satellite On The Way To Moon

Long Beach-based Rocket Lab USA says its mission to put a cubesat into space in orbit around the Moon is getting closer, and has now reached an apogee of 43,297 miles (69,680 km) from earth. According to the company, it successfully completed a sixth on-orbit burn of its engines, and now only has one burn left to put NASA's CAPSTONE experiment on a ballistic transfer trajectory to the moon. The company said the maneuver is expected to take place as early as July 4th. The CAPSTONE mission is expected to then use the Sun's gravity and its own engines to make it the way all the way to orbit around the moon in four months, arriving on November 13th.