Joint Statement from Advanced Space and Space Dynamics Laboratory

Advanced Space and Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) are proud to continue their partnership on CAPSTONE 02, building on the success of the original CAPSTONE mission around the Moon. As prime contractor, Advanced Space is leading the mission and integrating a strong partner team to advance autonomous navigation, rendezvous and proximity operations and communications in cislunar space for NASA. The mission consists of two ESPA-class spacecraft built by Terran Orbital, an LMCO company, and has several valued partners and stakeholders.

The collaboration between Advanced Space and SDL reflects a strong and enduring relationship built on shared technical excellence, mutual trust and a common commitment to advancing space exploration. Across CAPSTONE and now CAPSTONE 02, the two organizations have worked closely to solve hard problems, support mission success and develop capabilities that will serve future lunar missions. Each organization’s technical strengths, professionalism, responsiveness and spirit of collaboration have made the partnership especially rewarding.

For CAPSTONE 02, SDL is providing two flight-qualified Iris Radios and associated communications, navigation and precise timekeeping hardware for the mission’s two spacecraft. These systems will support both direct-to-Earth communications and a spacecraft-to-spacecraft crosslink, enabling key demonstrations in coordinated operations and autonomy near the Moon.

“As prime contractor for CAPSTONE 02, Advanced Space is proud to lead a mission that builds on CAPSTONE’s pathfinding legacy and brings together outstanding partners like SDL,” said Bradley Cheetham, president and CEO of Advanced Space. “SDL played an important role in the original CAPSTONE mission, and their communications and timing systems will be even more important on CAPSTONE 02 as we demonstrate capabilities future lunar missions will depend on. Just as important, SDL has been a tremendous long-term partner. There is a high degree of trust and shared purpose between our teams, and it is always a pleasure to work with an organization that brings such deep expertise, commitment and collaborative spirit to every challenge.”

“CAPSTONE 02 is an exciting next step for this partnership,” said Tim Neilsen, branch head of Spacecraft Missions and Technologies for Civil and Commercial Space at SDL. “We greatly value our relationship with Advanced Space and the opportunity to continue building on the success of CAPSTONE together. This has been a truly productive collaboration, and we appreciate Advanced Space’s leadership, trust and teamwork, as well as our shared vision.”

“Advanced Space has been an excellent partner across both CAPSTONE missions,” said Chase Child, SDL’s program manager for CAPSTONE 02. “We are proud to support CAPSTONE 02 by providing the communications backbone for this two-spacecraft mission and helping enable the coordinated operations and proximity demonstrations at the heart of the program. Beyond the technical work, this partnership has been especially meaningful because of how well our teams work together. There is a strong sense of mutual respect and a genuine pleasure in collaborating on missions that are pushing the industry forward.”

“SDL’s flight-proven communications heritage, technical depth and collaborative approach make them an outstanding partner, and it has been a pleasure working together to build a mission that can help enable the future of lunar exploration,” said Alec Forsman, CAPSTONE 02 lead for Advanced Space.

Advanced Space and SDL look forward to future collaboration to help advance the resilient, scalable mission capabilities needed to support future operations around the Moon.