NASA's LRO/LCROSS Missions Successfully Launched! June 19, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : Constellation, LCROSS, Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter, NASA , trackback
NASA’s twin lunar orbiter craft—the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)—were successfully launched on Thursday aboard an Atlas V rocket.
This marks the first mission (well, missions) in Constellation to be launched, the beginning of a big new era for NASA (“America’s first step in a lasting return to the Moon”, as the launch video embedded below declares it.)
The LRO will aim it’s seven instruments (which I’ll be taking individual looks at here at Luna C/I) at the Moon to collect detailed information about its environment, in preparation for colonization (and potentially mining) efforts,;while the LCROSS is designed to use one of its rocket phases to create an impact in a deep-shadow crater, analyzing the material to see if there is water ice present there—a potentially “smashing success“.
Embedded below is a pretty spectacular video from NASA of the launch, from on board the rocket itself (check out the SpaceX Falcon 1 launch video for a similar, if even more astounding, view of a rapid departure from Earth) :
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Its fantastic !!.
Best regards
JMPSB