The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter or LRO (top) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS (lower) are scheduled to be launched together aboard an Atlas 5 rocket on a mission to the moon. BRUCE WEAVER / AFP / Getty
Say this for the U.S. space program: we may have spent the last 40 years mostly ignoring the moon, but when we go back, we go back with a bang. Later today — if weather conditions and hardware permit — NASA will launch its much-anticipated and deeply imaginative Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the first American spacecraft of any kind to make a lunar trip since 1999. Not only will LRO help us study the moon in greater detail than ever before, it should also give us our first look at the six Apollo landing sites since we abandoned the historic campgrounds two generations ago.
Read the entire article, U.S. Shoots for the Moon, This Time to Stay, over at Time.com
