Mission Reports

NASA’s $30 million CAPSTONE mission lifted off Tuesday on a Rocket Lab launcher from New Zealand, heading on a circuitous but fuel-efficient four-month journey into a halo orbit around the moon to test navigation and operations concepts for the Artemis program.

A Rocket Lab launcher lifted off Tuesday with NASA’s CAPSTONE mission, a small spacecraft the size of a microwave oven heading to the moon as a pathfinder for the Gateway lunar space station. Liftoff of the Electron booster from New Zealand occurred at 5:55 a.m. EDT (0955 GMT).

NASA and commercial companies are ready to launch a 55-pound spacecraft from New Zealand to the moon Tuesday on a scouting mission to the orbit where engineers plan to assemble the Gateway mini-space station, a waypoint for astronauts flying to and from the lunar surface.

Following a first pass last year, the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission flew by Mercury again Thursday for a gravity assist to continue reshaping its trajectory, setting up for a maneuver in 2025 to settle in an orbit around the planet closest to the sun.

The second section of the Florida launch tower for SpaceX’s huge Super Heavy and Starship rocket was lifted on top of the first tower segment Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center, continuing construction of a structure that will stand more than 400 feet tall.