“Going to the moon is no joke.” So said Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, just days before the planned launch of CAPSTONE, a watershed mission for both NASA and the private space industry.

The mission is important, though you might not assume so based on the stats of the CAPSTONE CubeSat on its own: It’s about the size of a microwave oven and weighs in at just 55 pounds. But the end goal of the spacecraft’s roughly six-month stint in lunar orbit is to chart a favorable trajectory for a crewed station that will orbit the moon. Once established, that platform, dubbed Gateway, could unlock a whole new chapter in human space exploration.

Consider CAPSTONE (which stands for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) the first in-space step in NASA’s Artemis program, an ambitious plan to return humans to the moon by the middle of this decade. The Gateway platform could be used as a way station for lunar landers, a resupply junction for astronauts exploring the moon -- or even a transfer point for missions to Mars and beyond.

Image Credits: NASA

The mission isn’t just a big deal for the Artemis program and public space exploration: Notably, it’s the result of a patchwork of collaboration between private industry and the space agency. The list of partners on NASA’s website for the mission includes:

• Advanced Space, which developed, owns and is operating CAPS

• Tyvak International, which built the CubeSat platform

• Stellar Exploration, providing the spacecraft’s propulsion system

• Tethers Unlimited, which provided the radio comms system

And, of course, Rocket Lab for the launch services.

CAPSTONE is launching aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company’s site on New Zealand's remote Māhia Peninsula. “This is the highest mass and the highest performance Electron has ever had to fly by quite some margin,” Beck said. “The vehicle is absolutely stretched to its limits with respect to performance.”