CAPSTONE, NASA’s new satellite

In news– NASA has launched CAPSTONE- Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment that is designed to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit.

About CAPSTONE satellite-

It is a microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds (25 kg) satellite.
The satellite was launched on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1.
It is heading towards an orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program.
As a pathfinder for Gateway, CAPSTONE aims to help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies, and by verifying the dynamics of the halo-shaped orbit.
The orbit is known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). It is significantly elongated, and is located at a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon. This offers stability for long-term missions like Gateway.
At the Moon, CAPSTONE will enter NRHO, where it will fly within 1,600 km of the Moon’s North Pole on its near pass and 70,000 km from the South Pole at its farthest.
The spacecraft will repeat the cycle every six-and-a-half days and maintain this orbit for at least six months to study dynamics.
CAPSTONE will gain experience with small dedicated launches of CubeSats beyond low-Earth orbit, to the Moon, and beyond.
The spacecraft is currently in low-Earth orbit and is attached to Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon.

NASA’s Artemis program-

The Artemis program is a human spaceflight program led by NASA to explore the Moon, aiming for its first touchdown on the lunar south pole by 2025.
If successful, the Artemis program will perform the first crewed lunar landing mission since Apollo 17 in 1972, the final lunar flight of the Apollo program.
The Artemis program began in December 2017 as part of successive efforts to revitalize the U.S. space program.
Short-term goal for the program is landing the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon; mid-term objectives include establishing an international expedition team, and a sustainable human presence on the Moon.
Long-term objectives for Artemis are laying the foundations for the extraction of lunar resources, and eventually making crewed missions to Mars and beyond feasible.
The Artemis program is carried out predominantly by NASA and U.S. commercial spaceflight contractors, in partnership with the European Space Agency and the space agencies of several other nations.