NASA's Moon-bound CAPSTONE spacecraft reaches apogee - its farthest point from Earth

NASA's Moon-bound spacecraft, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE), reached apogee - the spacecraft's farthest point from Earth, on Friday.

Apogee is at 1,531,949 km or 951,909 miles away from Earth and it was achieved at around 1:35:52 pm MT on Friday, August 26th, Advanced Space, which owns and operates CAPSTONE on behalf of NASA, said in a statement.

The spacecraft is now heading back towards the Moon to test the unique orbit for NASA's future Artemis lunar outpost Gateway. It will be the first spacecraft to test the dynamics of a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) by demonstrating how to enter into and operate in this special orbit.

"It is tremendous that NASA had the foresight to have the CAPSTONE mission serve as a precursor to the Artemis missions. We are proud to be able to validate and actively support the secondary payloads that will be deployed on the upcoming launch of the Artemis 1 mission. This is exhilarating. In 79 days, we will be inserting into the target orbit at the Moon. We're on the way back and the excitement is building," said Bradley Cheetham, Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Space and Principal Investigator for CAPSTONE.

Today, #CAPSTONE is the furthest from home (Earth), nearest to the future of Gateway! At 1:35 MT CAPSTONE reached apogee — a stunning distance of 1,531,948km. CAPSTONE now heads back towards the Moon to test the Gateway orbit - doing its part for @NASA's #Artemis #Moon Missions pic.twitter.com/GBGMyy3afn

— Advanced Space (@AdvancedSpace) August 26, 2022

CAPSTONE launched on June 28, 2022, aboard a Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from the company's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The microwave oven-sized CubeSat will arrive to its lunar orbit on November 13.

After reaching its target destination, CAPSTONE will orbit this area around the Moon for at least six months to understand the characteristics of the orbit. The spacecraft will also demonstrate the reliability of innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solutions as well as communication capabilities with Earth.