NASA's plan to land astronauts on the moon again is getting a boost after a satellite the size of a microwave oven broke free from Earth's atmosphere.
It has been a strange journey for the satellite. It was launched from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula six days ago. It will take another four months for the satellite to get to the moon.
Peter Beck told The Associated Press that it was hard to say he was excited.
It will probably take a while to sink in. He said that the project took two and a half years and was difficult to execute. It's absolutely epic to see that all come together tonight and that the craft is going to the moon.
The relatively low cost of the mission marked the beginning of a new era for space exploration, according to Beck.
Beck said that there is a rocket and a spaceship that can take you to the moon, to asteroids, to Venus, to Mars. It's an insane capability that hasn't been done before.
If the rest of the mission is successful, the Capstone satellite will send back vital information for months as the first to take a new orbit around the moon.
NASA plans to put a space station called Gateway into the orbital path so that astronauts can descend to the moon's surface as part of its Artemis program.
Beck said that the new position of the satellite allows it to stay in constant contact with Earth.
The second spaceship called Photon separated from the first spaceship after nine minutes. The satellite was carried for six days in Photon and its engines fired to raise it's altitude.
The satellite was able to break from Earth's gravity after a final engine burst. The plan is for the satellite to hit the moon far enough to cause it to fall back into its original position. A small amount of fuel will be used by the satellite to make a few planned trajectory course changes.
Beck said that they would make a decision on what to do with Photon over the next few days.
There are a number of cool missions that we can do with it.
California-based Rocket Lab and Colorado-based Advanced Space were selected by NASA to work on the project.
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