Rocket Lab's Tiny Rocket Sent A Satellite to The Moon: What does 'Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit' Mean?

The first launch to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program is the tiny CAPSTONE spacecraft which will demonstrate navigation, maneuvering and communication in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) over the lunar poles. This is the planned orbit for the lunar gateway, the staging orbit for transfers to and from the lunar surface. This type of orbit has never been used before, Apollo , it was only really discovered in the 1970's and only in the last couple of decades has its utility been realised for spacecraft operations in cislunar space.

CAPSTONE is going to spend 6 months in this orbit demonstrating the technology and verifying that observers on the ground can accurately determine the orbit so that the correct station keeping motions can be made.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/2...

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