Thursday, June 18, 2009

Back To The Moon: NASA To Launch New Lunar Scouts

Atlas 5 rocket. Photo: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now

From Yahoo News/Space:

Nearly 40 years after humans first set foot on the lunar surface, NASA is gearing up to go back with the planned launch today of two unmanned scouts, the robotic vanguard for the first U.S. return to the moon in a decade.

An Atlas 5 rocket is poised to launch the two probes, a powerful lunar orbiter and a smaller spacecraft that will hunt for water ice by crashing into the moon, at about 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT) today from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission, NASA hopes, will lay the foundation for its plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.

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