NASA, Rocket Lab move first Artemis Moon launch – CAPSTONE – to New Zealand

6.4K New Zealand is now set to host the first launch of the Artemis Program, as Rocket Lab is now planning to launch the CAPSTONE mission from their operational launch pad at Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula. This is the first lunar mission for Rocket Lab, currently scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2021. “Flexible isn’t a word usually used to describe lunar missions but operating two launch complexes gives us the freedom to select a site that best meets mission requirements and schedule,” said Rocket Lab CEO and Co-Founder, Peter Beck. “Our team is immensely proud to be launching one of the first pathfinding missions to support NASA’s goal of delivering a sustainable and robust presence on the Moon. We’ve teamed up with the NASA Launch Services Program on previous Electron missions to low Earth orbit, so it’s exciting to be working with them again to go just a bit further than usual…some 380,000 km further.” Originally scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, United States, the continuous delays in the certification of Rocket Lab’s Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) by NASA has prompted the shift to New Zealand. An Autonomous Flight Termination System is a GPS-guided system designed to destroy a rocket automatically if it veers off trajectory during its flight. The system makes flight termination decisions by using redundant computers that track the launch vehicle using GPS and on-board sensors, combined with software-based rules that identify where the rocket can fly safely. This autonomy eliminates the need of a traditional flight termination infrastructure which involves a human making a decision to terminate a mission if the launch vehicle veers off course and is crucial for increasing launch frequency as the system reduces the turnaround time between missions. Rocket Lab has been flying Electron rockets with AFTS since the “Running out of Fingers” mission in December 2019, but for it to fly from Virginia, the system has to be certified by NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Peter Beck, CEO and Co-Founder of Rocket Lab, said in an earlier press call, “[AFTS] is taking a lot longer than we all expected, but keeping an eye on the longer term prize [of AFTS at Wallops’ range].” Rocket Lab is one of only two American companies to fly with the autonomous flight termination system, the other being SpaceX. The CAPSTONE Mission Owned and operated by Advanced Space of Colorado, CAPSTONE, or the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, is a CubeSat launching to the Moon’s Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). This special orbit is at a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon that allows an unobstructed view of Earth in addition to coverage of the Moon’s poles. NRHO will be used to maintain communications with mission control on Earth at all times, unlike a low Lunar orbit where communication interruptions take place at the far side of the Moon. Since this orbit will also be used by the Gateway lunar space station, Orion spacecraft, and Human Landing System (HLS) landers, CAPSTONE’s main objective is to reduce the risk for future Artemis missions by validating the navigation technologies and the dynamics of this unique orbit. The development of this satellite was facilitated by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate via the Small Spacecraft Technology Program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. The CubeSat will be launched aboard the Electron rocket and initially placed into an elliptical low Earth orbit, before using the interplanetary version of Rocket Lab’s kick stage and satellite bus, known as Photon, to place the CubeSat on a Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) trajectory. This TLI burn will use the kick stage’s 3D printed HyperCurie engine. After the deployment of CAPSTONE, the satellite will use its onboard monopropellant hydrazine system powered propulsion system to enter the NRHO, while the Photon will continue on its own trajectory to conduct a lunar fly-by. The journey is expected to take around three to four months. Once reaching orbit and entering its operational phase, CAPSTONE — as part of its six month primary mission — will validate the propulsion requirements for maintaining this type of orbit as predicted by models. It will also test the accuracy of a new type of spacecraft to spacecraft navigation system. The results of these tests will help support crewed missions to the lunar surface and the Gateway space station by reducing logistical uncertainties for such future expeditions. CAPSTONE is set to be the first mission to the Moon under the Artemis program. Also scheduled for late-2021, although likely to slip into early-2022, is the uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The first uncrewed Moon landings under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program will follow in 2022, alongside development of the SpaceX Starship Human Landing System, which will include an uncrewed landing demonstration. This will all precede the first crewed Artemis landing on the Artemis 3 mission, no earlier than 2024. (Lead photo of an Electron rocket vertical at LC-1A in New Zealand – via Rocket Lab)