Bloomberg — The Capstone spacecraft, which launched in late June as part of NASA’s return to the lunar effort, has lost contact with its operators, the US space agency said.
The orbiter, owned and operated by Advanced Space LLC, was launched on June 28 from New Zealand by Rocket Lab USA Inc. (RKLB). Six days later, the capstone separated from the upper phase and began a four-month journey to the moon, NASA said in a blog post on July 4.
The spaceship, which is The first privately owned spacecraft intended to orbit the moon, is “currently out of contact” and its support team is trying to determine the cause and restore communications, Sarah Frazier, a NASA spokeswoman, said in an interview.
The main objective of Capstone is to test the orbit that Gateway will use, A small NASA space station will be a staging area for flights to the moon’s surface. It will include docking ports to visit spacecraft and space for the crew to live and work.
Gateway is part of NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface starting in 2025.Renewing human exploration of the Moon and moving towards Mars exploration.
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