NASA's tiny CAPSTONE probe snaps 1st photo of the moon, begins extended mission

During the successful May 9 experiment, CAPSTONE teamed up with, which has been circling the moon since 2009. CAPSTONE beamed a signal to LRO, which bounced it back to the tiny spacecraft, where it was converted into a measurement of the distance and relative velocity between the two probes.

"The test proved the ability to collect measurements that will be utilized by CAPS software to determine the positioning of both spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in an."This capability could provide autonomous onboard navigation information for future lunar missions." The May 9 test came just a few days before the six-month anniversary of CAPSTONE's insertion into lunar orbit. The six-month milestone, which occurred on May 13, officially concluded the primary mission of the little cubesat. But the trial shows that CAPSTONE can still contribute to NASA's moon efforts going forward.

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