A small NASA-financed spacecraft launched from New Zealand on 26-06-2022, kicking off the space agency’s plans to send astronauts back to the moon in a few years.

• The spacecraft, called CAPSTONE, is about the size of a microwave oven.
• It will study a specific orbit where NASA plans to build a small space station for astronauts to stop at before and after going to the moon’s surface.
• At 9:55 pm local time (5:55 a.m. Eastern time), a 59-foot-tall rocket carrying CAPSTONE lifted off from a launchpad along the eastern coast of New Zealand.
• Although the mission is gathering information for NASA, it is owned and operated by a private company, Advanced Space, based in Westminster, Colorado.