Media are invited to join NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Representatives Ed Perlmutter, Joe Neguse and Jerry McNerney for a tour of the Westminster, Colorado-based aerospace company Advanced Space Thursday, May 5.
NASA has partnered with Advanced Space to launch a technology demonstration under the agency’s Artemis program – the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE). Melroy and the representatives will see a full-size CAPSTONE model, tour the Mission Operations Control Room, and visit the company’s development facilities.
CAPSTONE will test the unique lunar orbit planned for Gateway – an orbiting outpost built by NASA and its commercial and international partners to support long-term operations at the Moon.
The event will begin at 8:45 a.m. MDT at Advanced Space headquarters at 1400 W 122nd Ave., Suite 200, Westminster, Colorado. Following the tour at around 9:45 a.m., Melroy and Advanced Space leadership will be available to answer questions about CAPSTONE, NASA’s Moon to Mars plans including Artemis, and Colorado’s role in the agency’s plans for exploration throughout the solar system.
Members of the media who wish to attend must be U.S. citizens. To participate, media should RSVP to Justin Weiss at: justin.d.weiss@nasa.gov at least one hour prior to the start of the event.
Melroy is visiting Colorado to discuss NASA’s Moon to Mars strategy with the science community at an agency workshop and to visit industrial and academic partners in Colorado that support NASA.
CAPSTONE spacecraft is a microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing 55 pounds and slated to launch no earlier than May 2022. The mission will help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating its orbit and testing innovative navigation technologies.
Advanced Space owns and operates the CAPSTONE CubeSat. This technology demonstration represents an innovative collaboration between NASA and industry to provide rapid results and feedback to inform future exploration and science missions. It will also demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation technology developed by the company through NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research awards.
For more information about NASA’s Moon to Mars plans, visit:
