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NASA announced Friday it selected Rocket Lab of Huntington Beach,
Calif., to launch a small satellite, or CubeSat, that will orbit the
moon to help prepare for lunar missions.
Rocket Lab is a new space company known mostly for launching small
satellites from New Zealand, but it has a new launchpad in Virginia. The
mission, called Capstone, is set to launch from the Virginia location
in early 2021.
NASA plans to have the CubeSat enter the same orbit around the moon as
the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The Capstone spacecraft will
allow NASA to study the planned orbit for Gateway.
"In the same way we opened access to low Earth orbit for small
satellites, we're proud to be bringing the Moon within reach to enable
research and exploration," Rocket Lab founder and Chief Executive
Officer Peter Beck said in an announcement.
The 55-pound Capstone CubeSat will sit atop an Electron rocket launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
After launch, the company's Photon platform will carry the spacecraft on
a three-month journey to the moon, where its own propulsion system will
guide it into an elliptical orbit over the moon's poles.
NASA said the fixed-price launch contract is valued at $9.95 million. In
September, NASA awarded a $13.7 million contract to Advanced Space of
Boulder, Colo., to develop and operate the CubeSat.
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