A CubeSat bound for a lunar orbit was brought back under control on 7 October. According to Space.com, the 25kg probe resumed normal operations after spending a month in safe mode while tumbling through cislunar space. The problem began with a valve malfunction on one of the spacecraft’s eight thrusters.

The ‘Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment’ (Captsone) was designed and launched to test and verify the calculated orbital stability of a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit around the Moon. This is the highly eccentric orbit that will be adopted by Nasa’s Gateway station while it supports future missions to the Moon’s surface. For more information on that upcoming project, see Engineering Matters episode #118 Gateway: The Lunar Space Station.

The Capstone project is owned by Advanced Space on behalf of Nasa, while the spacecraft was designed and built by Terran Orbital.

A spokesperson for Advanced Space said of the probe’s recovery, “This is a major accomplishment for the mission team and positions the mission well for upcoming critical activities and arrival at the Moon. The risks of this anomaly and recovery process were significant and the team worked extensively and collaboratively to mitigate these risks through disciplined engineering analysis and review.

“Over the coming days, the spacecraft status will be monitored while the team works to evaluate subsequent changes to the spacecraft operating procedures so that upcoming critical events can be conducted in the possible presence of a valve that remains partially open. In parallel, the mission team will work to design possible fixes for this valve related issue to further reduce the risk of future propulsive operations.”