NASA's tiny CAPSTONE mission continuing to moon as team works communications glitch

The CAPSTONE satellite lost contact with operators after completing a set of initial tasks.

The capsule was launched from New Zealand on June 28th. The rocket's satellite bus successfully released the CAPSTONE spacecraft after it was sent off on a trajectory towards the moon. It was only 11 hours later that the bad news about the experiment that NASA wants to use for the Gateway lunar space station came in.

Advanced Space, a Colorado-based company that operates the CAPSTONE mission for NASA, said in a statement that the microwave-sized satellite successfully deployed its solar array after it separated from Photon. Spacecraft controllers pointed the satellite's antenna toward Earth and established contact via a deep-space ground station in Madrid and a NASA ground station in California.

There are every missions to the moon.

Advanced Space said in a statement that the operations team began check out and commission of the craft. The operations team was able to determine the state of the spaceship.

The company said that the controllers switched on CAPSTONE's propulsion system and prepared it for a burn that should adjust the satellite's trajectory so that it can enter the moon in November.

This maneuver couldn't be completed because of a communication problem.

The initial post-separation trajectory correction maneuver can be delayed for several days if needed, according to NASA.

According to Advanced Space, the CAPSTONE satellite is currently about 177,000 miles from Earth, which provides margins to resolve and understand the anomalies before proceeding with the first trajectory correction maneuver.

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