Another Success with CAPSTONE Lunar Mission

Another Success with CAPSTONE Lunar Mission

Spacecraft remains on target to test navigation technology and lunar operations to support NASA’s Moon missions under Artemis programs

It is hard to believe we launched CAPSTONE almost a month ago. We have encountered many variables that have kept this mission exciting, and the mission operators have been active. The Advanced Space Astrodynamics and Navigation Engineers have been busy for years leading up to this and just as busy this last month as CAPSTONE flies. An assumption may be that a small satellite means less work but in actuality the effort is just as great if not more so. Small satellites with small budgets and size restrictions require more creativity and calculated steps to ensure precision and execution through the process. (more…)

CAPSTONE Updated TCM Schedule

CAPSTONE Updated TCM Schedule

The CAPSTONE mission team has rescheduled the trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) originally targeting for this morning to review additional data and perform additional analysis to support modeling of the spacecraft performance during maneuvers. The rescheduled plan does not have any significant impact on the size of the planned correction maneuver which was part of the of TCM executed two days prior.  The spacecraft is healthy, communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) and in a nominal state. (more…)

CAPSTONE Mission: 06 July 2022 Update

CAPSTONE Mission: 06 July 2022 Update

Over the last 24 hours, the CAPSTONE mission team has worked together to narrow down the likely cause of the communications systems anomaly discussed yesterday. The integrated mission team took time and care to work the problem, gaining information from various data sources, working with ground-based hardware to evaluate behavior in a controlled environment, and working to resolve the problem systematically.  This work has included rapid engineering support and resources from many different mission partners. We are extremely grateful for this team effort and want to express our appreciation to all of those involved. (more…)

Sci-Tech Forum 2022

Sci-Tech Forum 2022

A few of our team members are attending the Sci-Tech Forum this week both physically and virtually. We invite you to listen to their work being presented, which demonstrates great collaboration and support from the NASA Gateway Program. Enter into discussion and learn ways we may support your needs. We look forward to connecting with you.

Paper presented by our Astrodynamics and Navigation Engineer, Connor Ott
 Session: SFM-04, Orbit Determination and Space Surveillance Tracking
 Session Room Name: Coronado B
 Presentation Title: Range Biases, Measurement Noise, and Perilune Accuracy in Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit Navigation
 Tuesday, January 4, 14:00 – 15:40 PST (In-Person)

Paper presented by our Astrodynamics Engineer and Mission Design Lead, Ethan Kayser
 Session: SFM-06, Trajectory Design and Optimization I
 Paper Title: Navigation and Mission Design for Low-Thrust Insertion into Near Rectilinear Halo Orbits
 Tuesday, January 4, 16:00 – 17:15 PST (Virtually)

Paper presented by our Astrodynamics and Navigation Engineer, Michael Thompson
 Session: SFM-17, Trajectory Design and Optimization VII
 Session Room Name: Cortez Hill C
 Presentation Title: An Analysis of Downstream Uncertainty in NHRO Stationkeeping Strategies
 Thursday, January 6, 14:00 – 15:40 PST (In-Person)