NASA’s CAPSTONE Completes Extended Mission Testing Lunar Technologies

According to NASA News, the CAPSTONE spacecraft has wrapped up an extended mission testing navigation and communication technologies in lunar orbit. The small satellite — formally the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment — was built to prove out tools that let spacecraft find their way and stay in contact without a direct link back to Earth. NASA says those capabilities matter as it prepares for a sustained human presence on the Moon, where future missions will increasingly need to operate on their own.

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