LRO Ready for Launch

This morning, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and its launch vehicle, an Atlas V rocket, were rolled out to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's SLC-41 [Space Launch Complex-41]. Here's a live updating picture:

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/maps/spacecam15.shtml

Surrounding the rocket are four lightning protection towers.

Atop the 200-foot Atlas/Centaur with LRO is LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), which will impact the Moon in October. Its objective is to learn if water ice exists in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's South Pole.

Launch is set for Thursday, June 18 at 5:12 PM EDT, with two other opportunities at 5:22 and 5:32. We'll pick up again the next day at 6:41 PM if we can't go Thursday. The journey to the Moon will take about four days.

NASA TV coverage begins at 2 PM EDT, carried in high-definition, and on the web at

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Two LRO mission operations rooms at Goddard Space Flight Center will be part of the live coverage: the Mission Operations Center (MOC), and the nearby Launch Support Room (LSR). (I will be at the FSW (Flight Software) station in the LSR.)

As soon as the rocket clears the pad, the MOC will have control and responsibility for the spacecraft.

Four days later will be our next major milestone: LOI (Lunar Orbit Insertion). A long burn of our engines will be required to establish a lunar orbit. Otherwise we will fly past the Moon into deep space. There are still contingencies available to swing back and try again, but they will burn off too much of our fuel to fully complete the mission.