NASA's CAPSTONE probe came back to contact with controllers after going MIA for nearly 24 hours. An upcoming lunar space station will be tested by a microwave-sized satellite on its way to the moon.
The ground controllers were able to reestablish communication with the satellite on Wednesday. According to Advanced Space, the operations team began receiving signals from CAPSTONE. The team was able to confirm that the craft was functioning normally. CAPSTONE autonomously performed some tasks, such as maintaining its battery charge, staying pointed in the correct direction, and even performing a maneuver to get rid of excess momentum, while it was silent.
The team believes that CAPSTONE is ready for its first trajectory correction maneuver, a maneuver that will send the craft towards its elliptical path around the moon. At 11:30 a.m., the team is getting ready for the maneuver. The time is on Thursday.
NASA doesn't know what caused CAPSTONE to drop its communications line with the agency's Deep Space Network. According to NASA, ground-based testing suggests the issue was triggered during the communications system's startup. The team will keep an eye on the status of CAPSTONE.
On June 28 of this year, CAPSTONE was launched. The spaceship stopped sending signals to the team after leaving Earth's atmosphere. The cubesat is traveling through a series of loops to reduce the amount of fuel it needs to reach its destination. There is a chance that the probe will enter into a near rectilinear halo around the Moon. A small space station that will be placed in lunar orbit later this decade in support of the Artemis program will be tested out in practice.
The mission seems to be proceeding as planned despite the fact that the team doesn't know the cause of the problem. Advanced Space said in a statement that the issue has been cleared and that it will not happen again.
The company is suppose to be correct. The upcoming maneuvers will be extremely difficult to pull off on your own.
There are images taken by NASA's New Horizons.
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