Research Space: NASA LADEE moon probe heads for lunar orbit

Research Space: NASA LADEE moon probe heads for lunar orbit

2013/09/10

NASA’s latest moon shot is safely on its way after a technical hitch left it briefly pointing in the wrong direction.

The LADEE moon orbiter launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, at 1127 local time on 6 September. It was the first flight for the Minotaur V rocket that carried the craft to space, and NASA’s first moon launch from Wallops Island.

NASA normally launches space missions from Florida or California. But a new location was required for this mission because the Minotaur rocket uses part of a decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missile, and Wallops Island is one of few permitted launch sites for such missiles under arms agreements between the US and Russia.

Shortly after LADEE separated from the rocket, NASA realised that the spacecraft’s reaction wheels, which stabilise its orientation in space, had shut down too soon. Analysis on Saturday revealed that pre-programmed safety limits had caused the switch-off, so NASA disabled the limits to allow the wheels to spin.

“The reaction-wheel issue noted soon after launch was resolved a few hours later. The LADEE spacecraft is healthy and communicating with mission operators,” says Pete Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, which manages LADEE’s daily operations.

Unlike the few days that Apollo astronauts spent travelling to the moon, LADEE will take a more leisurely route, making three wide orbits around Earth before reaching lunar orbit in early October.

Once there, it will test a system for broadband communications between Earth and the moon, and will analyse the moon’s meagre atmosphere. At the end of the mission, about 100 days later, LADEE will run out of fuel and will not be able to maintain its orbit. NASA will deliberately crash the probe into the moon’s surface, being careful to avoid any historic lunar sites.

Syndicated content: Jacob Aron, New Scientist

Image: NASA – The Modular Common Spacecraft Bus in orbiter form: the LADEE spacecraft

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