After the spacecraft rebooted itself, communications got back to normal Monday (Feb. 6)
A Rocket Lab Electron booster launches NASA's tiny CAPSTONE moon probe on June 28, 2022.
As a technology demonstration mission, CAPSTONE is expected to run into trouble every once in a while. Other, smaller glitches have occurred with the spacecraft during its lunar sojourn — but the mission remains on track for now. CAPSTONE was supposed to perform a navigation test, developed by Advanced Space, to use data between at least two spacecraft for firming up a satellite's location where GPS is not available. was ready for the test and received the signal, but CAPSTONE was unable to get the"crosslink ranging measurements" it needed from the returned signal, NASA officials said. More tests are planned for this navigation system in the coming weeks.
As a positive, however, CAPSTONE has required far fewer maneuvers in orbit to stay on track than what the mission called for. At first, NASA expected the team would need one"orbit maintenance" firing each time the spacecraft circled the moon. But in 12 orbits around the moon, CAPSTONE only needed to fire its engine twice.
"This reduces risk and complexity for the mission and informs plans for future spacecraft flying in this orbit, like Gateway," NASA officials wrote.?" , a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter
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