Mahia will be the launchpad for a new mission to the Moon later this year.
Space company Rocket Lab announced it will launch its first mission to the Moon from its Mahia launch complex in the last quarter of 2021. It will be the first lunar mission launched from New Zealand.
The mission, named CAPSTONE (the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) aids NASA’s Artemis programme, which includes landing the first woman and the first person of colour on the Moon and establishing a long-term presence there.
CAPSTONE is a 25-kilogram satellite created by Advanced Space that will serve as the first spacecraft to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit, Rocket Lab’s director of communications Morgan Bailey said.
It will help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies and verifying the dynamics of this halo-shaped orbit.
The mission is the first time Rocket Lab will use its Photon spacecraft platform as a trans-lunar injection stage to place a satellite on a trajectory that will take it beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon.
After lifting off on Electron to an initial elliptical low Earth orbit, Photon will separate and use its 3D-printed Hyper Curie engine to provide in-space propulsion to allow CAPSTONE to break free of Earth’s gravity and set a course for the Moon.
After deploying the CAPSTONE satellite, Photon will continue on its own trajectory to conduct a lunar fly-by, while CAPSTONE will use its own propulsion system to enter a cislunar orbit.
Following a three-to-four-month trip to the Moon, the CAPSTONE CubeSat will enter a near rectilinear halo orbit, which is a highly elliptical orbit over the Moon’s poles.
Originally slated for lift-off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, the CAPSTONE mission will now take place from Launch Complex 1 to support a fourth-quarter launch window.
Flexible isn’t a word usually used to describe lunar missions but operating two launch complexes gives us the freedom to select a site that best meets mission requirements and schedule, Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said.
Our team are immensely proud to be launching one of the first path-finding missions to support NASA’s goal of delivering a sustainable and robust presence on the Moon.
We’ve teamed up with the NASA Launch Services Program on previous Electron missions to low Earth orbit, so it’s exciting to be working with them again to go just a bit further than usual . . . some 380,000 kilometres further.
Fly me to the moon: Rocket Lab has announced that its Moon satellite mission later this year will now be sent up from its Mahia launch site, not from the United States as previously indicated. CAPSTONE is a 25-kilogram satellite that will test a unique lunar orbit. It will be sent into orbit from Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. Image supplied by Rocket Lab