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Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has successfully completed the NASA CAPSTONE satellite’s first TCM burn (TCM-1)
As the first statistical maneuver of the mission, TCM-1 is designed to clean up expected dispersions from the launch vehicle injection – enabling CAPSTONE to continue its pathfinding lunar journey in support of NASA’s Artemis program.
Terran Orbital Guidance Navigation and Control systems perfectly performed the maneuver as designed by Advanced Space.
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The maneuver was designed based on navigation information collected by the Deep Space Network and processed by the Advanced Space flight dynamics team.
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Terran Orbital’s Mission Operations Center commanded the burn and processed the post-burn telemetry. Optimized for precise maneuvers, TCM-1 is the first maneuver executed by the CAPSTONE spacecraft using its onboard propulsion system.
The maneuver was designed to be approximately 20 m/s. Initial radiometric-based reconstruction suggests TCM-1 achieved approximately 19.85 m/s, which represents a deviation of approximately 0.75 % — well within expectations and predictions. At the time of maneuver execution, the spacecraft was approximately 465,000 km. from the Earth.
Prior to the maneuver, the spacecraft was on a trajectory that would take it approximately 1.2 million km. from the Earth. With the completion of TCM-1, the spacecraft is now targeting a trajectory that will take it approximately 1.4 million km. from Earth.