Mission Reports

The first nighttime flight of Virgin Orbit’s commercial air-launched rocket is on track for this week off the coast of California, carrying seven small satellites into orbit on a mission for the U.S. military’s Space Test Program.

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.