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

There is no doubt you have heard about the Google Lunar X Prize in the news recently. We came across a great article on CNN.com over the weekend and thought we would add our two cents on the project.

In just 4 years, we may have a rover on the moon all thanks to the Google Lunar X Prize. Google, who has put forth $20 million as a reward for landing a rover on the moon, will challenge the first privately funded team that can land a rover on the moon. The rover would then have to travel on the surface of the moon for 500 meters or more; send back data, photos and video; and do it all by the December 31, 2012 deadline.

To read the entire article, go to CNN.com