A NASA CubeSat designed to test a unique lunar orbit is safely in space and on the first leg of its journey to the Moon. The spacecraft is heading toward an orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a lunar space station built by the agency and its commercial and international partners that will support NASA’s Artemis program, including astronaut missions.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, mission launched at 5:55 a.m. EDT Tuesday, June 28, 2022, on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand.

NASA的立方體衛(wèi)星（CubeSat）設(shè)計用于測試一個獨特的月球軌道，目前它在太空中安全運(yùn)行，并進(jìn)入了月球之旅的第一段路程。該航天器正朝著未來計劃用于門戶（Gateway）的軌道前進(jìn)，門戶是該機(jī)構(gòu)及其商業(yè)和國際合作伙伴建造的一個月球空間站，將支持NASA的阿爾忒彌斯項目，包括宇航員任務(wù)。

2022年6月28日，周二，在新西蘭馬希亞半島的火箭實驗室1號發(fā)射場，地月自主定位系統(tǒng)技術(shù)操作和導(dǎo)航實驗（或稱CAPSTONE）搭載火箭實驗室的電子火箭發(fā)射升空。

圖片來源：Courtesy of Rocket Lab