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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed a successful 40-minute engine burn that placed the spacecraft in orbit around the moon, more than four days after launching from Cape Canaveral.
"All thrusters stopped," said a controller at the Mission Operations Center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Assembled engineers cheered the news.
"We're not going past the moon," said Rich Vondrak, project scientist for the LRO mission. "We're there to stay."
"It went like clockwork," said Craig Tooley, the mission's project manager.
The orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Thursday afternoon, and is NASA's first lunar scout in more than a decade.
LRO will continue to adjust its trajectory over the next several days as it starts a two-month period to turn on and test its systems and seven science instruments.
Then, the lunar scout will begin a yearlong $511-million mission to map safe landing sites, interesting areas for exploration and resources that astronauts could use to support an outpost.
3 comments:
James:
What's with the Jolly Roger Pirate Flag in the LRO Control Room?
Just wondering...
Rick Steele
Sarasota
Rick -- good eye. I hadn't noticed the flag, but I've asked the Goddard folks and will get back to you if I get an answer. I did notice several of the mission folks wearing red, Hawaiian-style shirts, which seemed a little puzzling. Hawaii is the primary observation site for the LCROSS impacts, but I'm not sure about any relevance to LRO.
Rick -- just got this response from NASA, which comes courtesy of Craig Tooley, LRO's project manager:
The Pirate Flag is a symbol of the LRO team's Esprit de corps. The pirate theme and identity grew out of the many challenges the LRO faced with the very rapid start of the project and the aggressive schedule we were committed to. The flag itself was a gift from one of the instrument teams. An ancillary tie to the pirate flag is our propulsion system which is built from the parts left from the canceled X-38 program, who also marched under a pirate flag. So it was in our blood so to say. Talk-Like-a-Pirate day was obviously heartily observed in LRO each year!
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