NASA's Lost Contact With A Microwave-Sized Cube-Sat -- It Was To Slowly Float Toward The Moon...

The news is troubling, to be sure -- but not irretrievable. Not. . . yet.

There are several days of slack in the next needed engine burn, and the team has a very good idea where the tiny box is, in space -- relative to Earth. But if a critical antenna component, or similar, is gone, and the backup functionality is gone, as well -- this may be a lost item. We shall wait and see:

. . .Following successful deployment and start of spacecraft commissioning on July 4, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) spacecraft experienced communications issues while in contact with the Deep Space Network.

The spacecraft team currently is working to understand the cause and re-establish contact. The team has good trajectory data for the spacecraft based on the first full and second partial ground station pass with the Deep Space Network. If needed, the mission has enough fuel to delay the initial post separation trajectory correction maneuver for several days. Additional updates will be provided as soon as possible. . . .

Now you know. . . onward, smiling. [Yet another single visit -- automated -- at 6 pm local, from backbone IP in Germany. Hilarious.]

नमस्ते