New NASA Missions Rendezvous With Moon

The LCROSS spacecraft has successfully completed its swing-by of the moon and is settling into a normal cruise mode. During the fly-by, LCROSS beamed spectacular first-light images of the moon back to Earth via streaming video.

The maneuver provides LCROSS with a gravity assist to help with cruise orbit. The LCROSS spacecraft will be “up close and personal” again with the moon on Oct. 9 — the day of impact.

LRO has also met a significant milestone after a four and a half day journey from Earth —  the orbiter is now successfully orbiting the moon.  Over the course of the next four days, LRO will perform four engine burns that will put the satellite into its commissioning phase orbit. The commissioning phase is where each of LRO’s seven instruments get checked out and turned on. After commissioning is complete (about 60 days after launch), the spacecraft is expected to be fully operational and the one year exploration phase of the mission will begin.

Both missions are one step closer to exploring our closest celestial neighbor.

40 thoughts on “New NASA Missions Rendezvous With Moon”

  1. Why is it taking (relativelaty a log time)for landing an unmanned spacecraft some 40 years after we (USA) landed manned craft there?

    Thak you;

    Space cadet

  2. The picture you’ve posted from LCROSS is a screen capture from a terminal window. Isn’t there a better source picture to post?

    I imagine that the original image was a lot better, just based on how blurry the frame with the words “Visible Light Camera” are. Can’t someone at Ames forward you a better image from LCROSS?


  3. With regards to posting new images, yes we have some at the LCROSS page now ( and will have new processed (e.g., thermal and visible mosaic) very soon (by next week). Indeed the image posted above is a screen grab and the originals are much clearer. The over exposure is a result of the fact that the visible camera was in an “auto gain” setting and since we were relatively far from the moon (8,000-10,000 km compared to what we will be for impact when we first turn on at 8,000 km and closing fast) the excess black in the frame gave the auto-exposure a hard time.

  4. hi,..

    i am planning of creating a paper on remote sensing satellite…but before that im looking for a you know where can i find a data of the moon by a remote sensing satellite?? or do have one??…that would be of great help..


  5. Curious to know if it is possible to bore a hole in the moon much as is done with mountains or trees on earth in order to assess not just the surface of the moon and what it tells but also the content of its interior.

    Don’t understand why the earth need be concerned about asteroids hitting the earth if the moon is not bothered by asteroids hitting it.

    One would think that bombing the moon would disrupt its orbit or magnetic field. Curious to know why it doesn’t. Because the impact is not large enough?


  7. After reading this presentation, I appreciate the information that a diligent person. And plus I'm good to read your post.

  8. This is great news. Congratulations.
    Do you have any new photos from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite? I'd love to see more photos and if possible some better quality images.

  9. I was watching a program about preparations for moon and mars crewed exploration. Since these craft leave the protection of earth’s magnetic field some form of shielding materials will be needed to be incorporated into the craft. Is any research being done into the possible use of an induced magnetic field around the space craft to deflect solar or cosmic particles or rays?

  10. NASA's new project seems very interesting.I would like to know more this MOON related project.
    I think this project also as good ans successful as your last projects.

  11. Bella|

    Wow, these images from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite are amazing. Would be great if you had slightly sharper or rather better quality images.

    Has the LCROSS been able to find water on the moon as yet? Would be great to see some more images.

  12. Bella|



  13. I am a college student and our professor asked if you could see mirages on the moon…I said no because they are due to atmospheric phenomena on earth, and the moon doesn’t really have an atmosphere. Now I am curious….can you see heat mirages on the moon at noon?

  14. I just want to know that docking in space is tough today and because of this the windows have large view angle. So i hope they should use some technology.

  15. New moon is a moon phase, normally an eclipse.
    Full moon… is when the moon is entire white.
    And Lillith is the part that we cannot see from the Earth.
    The moon represent astrologically the mother, the woman, the negative part, the yin, the passive part, the physical one, the family…
    The moon is an archetype, a character orbiting next to Earth.
    The Earth is matter and the moon too. But the moon influences the sea, the water, the fluids, the rivers, the tides, the operations by doctors, the blood, the stellar plasma, the coagulation and velocity of coagulation of blood in operation distinguishing the phase, then it is better to act… the fecundity and periods of ovulation in women.
    As we have the solar calendar, we have too the moon calendar, each 28 days, the different phase, it’s very important for women and genitals.
    The tremendous importance of having a child after this calendar, following the moons (phases) and the days…, the vegetation, the plants, the parts alive parts that have a body.
    Because I believe that are other alive parts that don’t have a body.
    It’s radical important to have a body to live? It sounds very fundamentalistic.
    From my point of view life must be free like all in the sky.
    The wind is traditional here, the typical wind of Earth.
    Sometimes I try to immagine how it will be the wind outside?
    Air is free for me, more than immagination, of course.
    I would like that the air were Time.

  16. Hi, clearly no mean feat acheiving this and congrats to the NASA team who done so. It is however very frustrating that we are not going to be seeing humans go back to the moon anytime soon. I was so looking forward to a manned mission with a view to building a base and permanent outpost for both colonization and observing in the clarity of space.

    Cheers Chaos

  17. this is such a dangerous mission, i hope every thing goes correct for them and it is all a success 🙂
    lose 7 pounds in 9 days, just by cleansing your body.

  18. NASA’s new goal is to have astronauts back on the moon by . The agency has scheduled unmanned missions between 2008 and 2011 to map out landing sites and to find a spot for a permanent moon base.

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