/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14595006
>The launch of NASA's CAPSTONE moon mission has been delayed at least two additional days, to no earlier than Monday (June 27).

>If all goes according to the current plan, CAPSTONE will launch Monday at 5:50 a.m. EDT (0950 GMT) and arrive at the moon on Nov. 13. That arrival date will remain the same no matter when CAPSTONE lifts off, NASA officials said; it's set by the mission's trajectory design. CAPSTONE's launch window extends through July 27.

The 55-pound (25 kilograms) CAPSTONE won't land on the moon. Its chief objective is to verify the stability of a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the moon — a highly elliptical path that no spacecraft has ever occupied before.

>The cubesat will also perform some navigation and communications tests, some of them in tandem with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling Earth's nearest neighbor for more than a decade.