After more than 50 years, NASA is returning to the moon with the new Artemis program. The last mission to the moon was part of the Apollo program, who, in Greek mythology, was the twin brother to Artemis. The New York Times reports that, in the following weeks, the mission will begin with the launch of CAPSTONE, a small spacecraft the size of a microwave.

CAPSTONE is an acronym for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment. It will scout out an area that future manned spacecrafts will be stopping at. CAPSTONE will also be testing the near-rectilinear halo orbit, a type of orbit which no spacecraft has done before.

CAPSTONE is different from past spacecrafts because is not owned by NASA, but by a private company called Advance Space. Since Advance Space owns CAPSTONE, it can create and test new technologies on it without being reviewed by the government, which makes innovations much easier and faster to be put into use. With new advancements over the years, and more private companies investing in this sector, innovations in spacefaring technology are being discovered faster than ever.