NASA’s LADEE spacecraft slipped into orbit around the moon Sunday, beginning a feverish four-month campaign to demonstrate a next-generation laser communications system and answer long-standing questions about the nature and origin of the tenuous lunar atmosphere.
The modest Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer spacecraft, measuring about 7.7 feet tall and 4.7 feet in diameter, fired its liquid-fueled engine at 1057 GMT (6:57 a.m. EDT) for four minutes, allowing the moon’s gravity to capture it into a high-altitude orbit over the equator.
Bummer that the NASA web sites are not working. Don’t understand that.
- As it happens, a former, long time Zoner works on that project. (n/t)