Aug 26, 2022 | CAPSTONE Mission
First Ever Commercial Satellite to Fly this distance from Earth – Moon Mission for NASA continues to make history.
Westminster, CO (August 26, 2022) Advanced Space LLC., a leading space tech solutions company with breakthrough navigation technology, applauds their team and mission partners as apogee is achieved for its CAPSTONE mission commissioned by NASA. Apogee, the furthest point at which the microwave-sized small satellite is from Earth, is at 1,531,949 km or 951,909 miles away from Earth at around 1:35:52 pm MT on Friday, August 26th. The dominance of the Sun’s gravitational pull has served as one of the guiding forces to allow the extreme distance of the spacecraft. This is one of the features of the ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) – the transfer method being used by CAPSTONE to reach the unique orbit around the Moon. The CAPSTONE spacecraft will now head towards the Moon. The CAPSTONE mission will test the lunar Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), the intended orbit for Gateway, a lunar space station that will support NASA’s Artemis program. CAPSTONE has contributed insights and shared data with Artemis 1 secondary payloads that will assist them in their mission operations. (more…)
Aug 19, 2022 | Papers & Presentations
Presented at the 36th Annual Small Satellite Conference 2022
Advanced Space: Tom Gardner, Brad Cheetham, Jeff Parker, Alec Forsman, Ethan Kayser, Michael Thompson, Conner Ott, Lauren DeMoudt, Matt Bolliger, Arlen Kam
Terran Orbital: Keith Thompson, Tristan Latchu, Rebecca Rogers
Stellar Exploration: Brennan Bryant, Tomas Svitek
ABSTRACT
The cislunar environment is about to get much busier and with this increase in traffic comes an increase in the demand for limited resources such as Earth based tracking of and communications with assets operating in and around the Moon. With the number of NASA, commercial, and international missions to the Moon growing rapidly, the need to make these future endeavors as efficient as possible is a challenge that is being solved now. Advanced Space is aiming to mitigate these resource limitations by enabling spacecraft in the cislunar environment to navigate autonomously and reduce the need for oversubscribed ground assets for navigation and maneuver planning. (more…)
Aug 11, 2022 | CAPSTONE Mission, Community
CAPSTONE Mission is acknowledged for cutting-edge efforts of recent and ongoing technical innovation for Small Satellites
Have you heard? We won Small Satellite Mission of the Year! It’s been a long journey from concept to launch, and we still have quite a journey ahead of us as we continue to the Moon, but CAPSTONE could not have gone so far without the support of our community. (more…)
Aug 5, 2022 | CAPSTONE Mission, Community
Congratulations KPLO on yesterday’s launch! We’ll see you out there!
CAPSTONE will be leading KPLO by around 1 month on its way to the Moon. As more missions head to the Moon, safety and transparency are key. We are working with partners to make sure operations in cislunar space are sustainable for the long term.
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Aug 3, 2022 | Papers & Presentations
A few of our team members are attending the 2022 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference next week in Charlotte, North Carolina. We invite you to listen to their work being presented, some of which demonstrates great collaboration and support from the NASA Gateway Program. Reach out and learn ways we may support your needs. We look forward to connecting with you. (more…)
