Completed · Success
The Italian Space Agency's ArgoMoon CubeSat photographed Earth and the Moon after its Artemis I deployment.
- Launch vehicle
- SLS Block 1 Crew
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- Italy
- Mission types
- Technology demonstrator
Chronology
Mission timeline
Deployment
ArgoMoon separated from its ICPS dispenser
The thesis gives the actual release time as 10:36:04 UTC. The Earth-centered EME2000 state at 10:23:38.921 UTC in its Table 5.1 is the earlier ICPS disposal state, not a post-release ArgoMoon state.
EarthMilestone
First two-way Doppler tracking data acquired
The first two-way Doppler points came from DSN station DSS 55. This is the beginning of the first tracking pass, not a directly published spacecraft state.
EarthMilestone
ArgoMoon photographed Earth during commissioning
ASI gives 00:15 CET on November 17 and an approximate Earth range of 125,000 km.
EarthFlyby
ArgoMoon flew by the Moon
Lombardo et al. report the flyby at 16:07 UTC, about 48 minutes before its scheduled time. The B-plane miss from the reference trajectory was about 5,000 km after the underperforming thruster failed to deliver commanded delta-v; this is not a surface-location error.
MoonFlyby
ArgoMoon flew past Earth and entered a heliocentric orbit
The thesis reports an Earth flyby at 165,880 km. After the lunar encounter altered the geometry, the spacecraft could not follow the planned geocentric orbit and entered a heliocentric orbit. The thesis does not specify the distance reference center.
EarthMilestone
Final navigation solution placed ArgoMoon beyond Earth's sphere of influence
The thesis says final orbit-determination solution UBO010 predicted that ArgoMoon left Earth's sphere of influence on December 10, 2022. This is a propagated solution result, not an independently observed crossing epoch.
Earth
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Trajectory record
Time-dependent navigation trajectory
Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- ArgoMoon: ICPS-carried interval through CubeSat separation; post-release path remains open · November 16, 2022 to November 16, 2022
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 7, 2026
- Artemis 1: ArgoMoon captured photos of the Earth and Moon - ASI — OTHERMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Mission in orbit and other initiatives - ASI — OTHERMission page · Supports: mission claims
- Artemis I Press Kit - NASA — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims
- Artemis I - NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog — NSSDCAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Argotec ArgoMoon mission and spacecraft drawing — OTHERMission page · Supports: mission claims
- ASI Annual Report 2022, ArgoMoon flight description, printed page 21 — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Lombardo et al. (2023): ArgoMoon flight-dynamics operations and navigation results — OTHERPaper · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Lombardo (2023) doctoral thesis: Navigation design and flight dynamics operations of the ArgoMoon cis-lunar CubeSat — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- DE440s planetary ephemeris kernel — NAIFEphemeris · Supports: mission claims
- NAIF0012 leap-seconds kernel — NAIFSpice · Supports: mission claims
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: mission claims · destination/body context
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context