NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Destination: Moon

Tuesday, January 6, at 9:28 p.m. EST, NASA's Lunar Prospector [ http://lunar.arc.na…] spacecraft climbed into the sky [ http://www.ksc.nasa…athena2.mpg ] above Cape Canaveral Air Station riding an Athena II rocket [ http://www-pao.ksc.…]. Representing NASA's first Moon mission since the 1972 flight of Apollo 17 [ http://www.jsc.nasa…], this launch also occurred on the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Surveyor 7 lunar lander [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…]. The three stage launch vehicle's [ http://lunar.arc.na…] fiery trail is in the foreground of this time exposure [ http://www.ksc.nasa…captions/KSC-98EC-01 07.html ] while the Moon [ http://lunar.arc.na…], near first quarter phase [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], is shown in the background some 250,000 miles from the Cape. Prospector will cover that distance [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in about 5 days, entering lunar orbit on Sunday. Prospector carries no cameras to image the well-photographed [ http://www.nrl.navy…] lunar surface. Instead, its array of instruments [ http://lunar.arc.na…] will map the lunar gravity, magnetic field, internal structure, and surface composition. The result, a detailed global view of current lunar properties [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], is expected to dramatically impact [ http://www.njin.net…] humanity's understanding of the origins [ http://lunar.arc.na…] of the Moon and the Solar System. From its vantage point [ http://www.moonlink…] in polar orbit, only 63 miles above the lunar surface, Prospector will also conduct a sensitive search for water ice which may be preserved [ http://www.soest.ha…] in permanent shadow at the Moon's South Pole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…].

Kennedy Space Center [ http://www.ksc.nasa…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]

spacecraft

moon

rocket

Hawaii

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Kennedy Space Center (KSC)

Moon

Surveyor

Polar

Apollo 17

Clementine

Lunar Prospector

Surveyor 7

moon

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap980108