A small microwave oven-sized spacecraft is on its approach to the Moon, setting the stage for a sustained human presence on the lunar floor. NASA launched its CAPSTONE satellite tv for pc on Tuesday, in a novel mission to check out a extremely elliptical orbit across the Moon as a part of the company’s Artemis program.

CAPSTONE launched on board Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket at 5:55 a.m. ET from the personal firm’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The launch was initially scheduled for Monday however suffered a slight delay when Rocket Lab determined to run last programs checks earlier than liftoff. “Today’s launch was an important step in humanity’s return to the Moon,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck, mentioned in a statement. “While CAPSTONE’s journey to the Moon has only just begun, we’re proud to have safely delivered CAPSTONE to space.”

Short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, CAPSTONE is headed for a close to rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) across the Moon. Once in NRHO, the 55-pound (25 kilograms) cubesat would require one full week to finish a full orbit across the Moon, touring from a distance of about 47,000 miles (76,000 km) from the lunar north pole and coming to inside 2,100 miles (3,400 km) of the alternative pole throughout its closest method.

CAPSTONE is designed to check this distinctive orbit for NASA’s Lunar Gateway, which is predicted to be constructed later this decade. As a part of the Artemis program, Gateway will probably be a lunar area station for enabling longer period missions to the Moon. Based on orbital fashions, NRHO ought to permit the Lunar Gateway to devour much less gas because it cruises its manner across the Moon, the results of gravitational interactions between the Moon and Earth. The orbit would additionally permit the gateway to remain in touch with Earth always.

CAPSTONE is at the moment in a secure Earth orbit connected to Rocket Lab’s Photon Lunar spacecraft bus—a spacecraft designed to set the small satellite tv for pc on its trajectory in the direction of the Moon. Approximately every week from launch, CAPSTONE will separate from the Electron rocket’s higher stage and proceed in the direction of its lunar vacation spot. The satellite tv for pc will attain a distance of 963,000 miles (1.55 million kilometers) from Earth, which is greater than thrice the space between Earth and the Moon, after which get pulled again in the direction of the Earth-Moon system by the gravitational pull of the Sun. CAPSTONE will attain its meant orbit in about 4 months after which run exams in NRHO for one more six months.

More: This Tiny Moon-Bound Satellite Could Carve a Path For a Lunar Space Station