NASA has restored communication with the CAPSTONE satellite after a brief outage

Following the successful launch of NASA's CAPSTONE mission from Rocket Lab's facility on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula, ground control lost contact with the spacecraft soon after it broke free of Earth's gravity well and separated from its Electron rocket carrier on Monday. But after nearly a full day in isolation, NASA announced on Wednesday that engineers have been able to reopen a line to the 55-pound satellite.

While the situation was worrying, NASA had already prepared for it. "If necessary, the mission has enough fuel to postpone the first post- separation trajectory correction maneuver for several days," a NASA representative informed Space.com on Monday.

This space probe, dubbed the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE), spent nearly a week circling the planet in order to acquire enough momentum to loft it on a four-month, trans-lunar injection (TLI) route to the moon. Once the CAPSTONE reaches lunar orbit on November 13th, it will follow the planned Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit of the future Lunar Gateway to prove that the path is stable.

"Specifically, it will validate the power and propulsion requirements for maintaining its orbit as predicted by NASA’s models, reducing logistical uncertainties," NASA described in an April blog post. "The orbit will bring CAPSTONE within 1,000 miles of one lunar pole on its near pass and 43,500 miles from the other pole at its peak every seven days, requiring less propulsion capability for spacecraft flying to and from the Moon’s surface than other circular orbits."

The Gateway will be used as a staging area for the expanded Artemis mission and lunar colonization efforts prior to forays further into space with an eye on eventually establishing Mars. Following this launch, NASA plans to send the Orion spacecraft — which has a launch window from August 23rd to September 6th — in order to examine the physiological consequences of a trans-lunar journey.