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NASA’s Artemis program took an important step forward this weekend, with CAPSTONE finally reaching its destination—a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. The 55-pound cubesat will now test this promising orbit in preparation for the Gateway lunar space station. CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, reached NRHO on Sunday, November 13, according to an Advanced Space press release. Later this week, the $33 million cubesat will attempt a pair of tiny clean-up maneuvers to confirm its placement in the lunar orbit. In addition to being the first human-built device to operate in NRHO,...

The two-minute video, titled “Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS)” and uploaded by the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) this week, details the project. Details on the planned project are sparse. The CHPS is a “spaceflight experiment designed to demonstrate foundational space domain awareness capabilities in the cislunar regime,” according to an extremely brief description on AFRL’s website. The project will be a collaboration between a number of US military branches. The Air Force will work with other organizations and contractors to develop the CHPS satellite, while the US Space Command will figure out how to best make use of...

Despite a declaration from President Barack Obama that the moon is not a planned destination for American astronauts, senior NASA engineers have quietly begun reconsidering using it as a staging point for an eventual mission to Mars.William Gerstenmaier, the chief of human exploration for NASA, does not see the president's plan of a direct, 900-day mission to the red planet as achievable. Instead, Gerstenmaier believes large amounts of ice at the lunar poles may provide an important reservoir of oxygen and hydrogen fuel to propel rockets and spaceships across the 40 million miles of space to Mars."If propellant was available...

Space Policy Effort for NASA's Future Focusing in on Final Decision By the President Progress on developing America's new space policy continues - and is moving quickly towards final review and a decision by the President. Given the proximity to the Kitty Hawk anniversary, it is now unlikely that it will be announced - at least in any detailed way - at this particular venue. It is now more likely that it will be rolled out early next year - perhaps (but not by definition) near or coincident with the State of the Union. Two things are certain: First,...