Building on the achievements of the original mission, CAPSTONE 02 will shift from orbit validation to testing technologies that will support future lunar exploration and the development of cislunar infrastructure.

NASA is working with industry to develop the next generation of infrastructure needed to support its Artemis programme, Moon Base initiative and future deep-space missions, with the agency’s CAPSTONE 02 mission set to demonstrate advanced navigation, communications and spacecraft operations in cislunar space.

The mission, scheduled for launch in 2027, will be carried out under a contract awarded to Advanced Space. It will deploy two small spacecraft in lunar orbit to test rendezvous and proximity operations, autonomous navigation and cislunar communications while continuing to gather data on the radiation environment around the Moon.

CAPSTONE 02 builds on the achievements of NASA’s original CAPSTONE mission, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment. The first mission became the first US commercial mission to the Moon and the first spacecraft to operate in a near-rectilinear halo orbit, a nearly stable lunar orbit influenced by the combined gravitational forces of the Earth and Moon.

The original mission validated communications, networking and autonomous navigation technologies while providing NASA with operational experience in cislunar space. CAPSTONE 02 will expand on those results by moving beyond orbit validation and testing capabilities intended to support future lunar exploration, commercial services and long-term infrastructure around the Moon.

The new mission will focus on advanced relative navigation techniques required for spacecraft rendezvous and close-proximity operations in cislunar space. These technologies are expected to support future Artemis missions by helping astronauts safely dock with lunar landers in orbit and transfer between spacecraft and the Moon’s surface.

The mission will use two identical spacecraft, each weighing approximately 400 kgs, supplied by Terran Orbital Systems. Mission operators will conduct a series of rendezvous, proximity and formation-flying manoeuvres in lunar orbit to study spacecraft trajectories under the combined gravitational influence of the Earth and Moon.

The spacecraft will use ground-based tracking, optical sensors and celestial references to determine their positions and navigate towards one another. NASA said the approach is similar to navigation methods planned for Orion spacecraft operations near lunar landers, allowing the agency to assess and validate these techniques in the space environment.

Both spacecraft will be capable of alternating between “chaser” and “target” roles, enabling NASA to test a broad range of operational scenarios under changing cislunar conditions. The demonstrations will help determine how navigation systems perform during mission-critical activities that cannot be fully replicated through testing on Earth.

CAPSTONE 02 will also serve as an in-space test platform for three NASA-developed navigation software systems. The software will collect operational data during the spacecraft’s low-energy transfer trajectory from Earth to beyond the Moon before entering lunar orbit.

An optical imaging payload developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will support the navigation demonstrations and capture images of the lunar surface. The mission will also further develop the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, first tested during the original CAPSTONE mission, which enables spacecraft to determine their positions relative to other spacecraft without depending entirely on Earth-based tracking.

NASA said the technologies being tested are designed to automate routine navigation functions, reduce dependence on continuous space-to-ground communications and enable new mission concepts through greater coordination between spacecraft. The CAPSTONE 02 spacecraft are also intended to demonstrate a cost-effective, rapidly deployable and repeatable model that could support the scalable development of cislunar infrastructure.

Sean Fuller, Moon Base CAPSTONE manager, said the mission represents an important step in advancing operational capabilities around the Moon. He added that CAPSTONE 02 will build on the lessons of the original mission by testing increasingly complex technologies and operational concepts that could support Artemis, Moon Base and future deep-space exploration.

CAPSTONE 02 is funded by NASA’s Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate with support from the Research and Technology Mission Directorate. The mission is managed by the Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and is funded through a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract.