Capstone Update September 12th

On September 8th, CAPSTONE suffered an anomaly that caused the spacecraft to tumble beyond its own control. CAPSTONE went dark for almost 24 hours before teams were able to retrieve telemetry data.

After data was received, mission controllers found that the spacecraft was tumbling, the onboard computer systems were periodically resetting, and the spacecraft was using more power than it was generating from its solar panels. The spacecraft was not in a stable configuration, and teams at Deep Space Network and Terran Orbital were able to reconfigure the vehicle into a safe mode and investigate further. The team is preparing the spacecraft to attempt a detumble operation to regain attitude control of the vehicle.

Power Issues due to Misalignment of Solar Panels

One of the problems for Capstone currently is its using more power than provided–power deficient. One aspect the teams hope to accomplish with the detumble is realignment of the solar panels towards the sun. Once the batteries are fully charged, then reorient the spacecraft towards the ground station on earth for communications.

Capstone is the leading mission for Artemis

Rocketlab, $RKLB, launched Capstone on June 28th, as the inaugural mission key to setting up future Artemis missions for success. Designed and built by Terran Orbital Corporation, and owned and operated by Advanced Space, funded by NASA, CAPSTONE is the first spacecraft to test the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon.