LADEE Moon Probe Successfully Launched by NASA

It's Saturday and after a week just about as gut-wrenching as any we've been through together, dear readers, let's pause and dream a little dream about something America does very well. NASA's newest unmanned robotic explorer rocketed into space late Friday in an unprecedented moonshot from Virginia that mermerized sky watchers along the US East Coast. While the LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer) spacecraft ran into early equipment trouble, NASA assured everyone early Saturday that the lunar probe was safe and on a perfect track for the moon. LADEE's reaction wheels had been turned on to orient and stabilize the spacecraft, which was spinning too fast after it separated from the final rocket stage, but they were automatically shut down by LADEE's own system. On Saturday, NASA confirmed that the reaction wheels were successfully brought back on-line and the spacecraft has acquired its safe-mode attitude profile. The limits that caused the powering off of the wheels soon after activation were disabled, and reaction wheel fault protection has been selectively re-enabled. “Our engineers will determine the appropriate means of managing the reaction wheel fault protection program. Answers will be developed over time and will not hold up checkout activities,” said Butler Hine, LADEE project manager. LADEE was launched by a Minotaur V rocket a little before midnight Friday evening from Virginia's Eastern Shore. Flight controllers applauded and exchanged high-fives following the successful launch. "We are headed to the moon!" NASA said in a tweet. The launch provided a rare light show along the East Coast for those blessed with clear skies. NASA urged sky watchers to share their launch pictures through the website Flickr, and the photos and sighting reports quickly poured in from New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New Jersey, Rhode Island, eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia, among other places. LADEE, pronounced "LA'-dee," is taking a roundabout path to the moon, making three huge laps around Earth before getting close enough to pop into lunar orbit. Unlike the quick three-day Apollo flights to the moon, LADEE will need a full month to reach Earth's closest neighbor. The Air Force Minotaur V rocket rhzy powered LADEE's launch was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. The spacecraft, which is the size of a small car, is expected to reach the moon on October 6. Scientists want to study the moon's delicate surface and determine if moon dust actually levitates from the lunar surface. NASA hopes to eventually replace LADEE's traditional radio systems with laser communications, which would mean faster bandwidth using significantly less power and smaller devices. As humans go farther out into the solar system, certainly to Mars, that laser communications will be needed to send high-definition and 3-D video, according to NASA's science mission chief, John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA has provided the following details of the launch -- The LADEE was successfully launched at 11:27 p.m. EDT Friday, September 6, from Pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Wallops Island, Virginia. LADEE is on its way to arrive at the moon in 30 days, then enter lunar orbit. -- LADEE is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center, which confirmed early Saturday morning that LADEE successfully separated from its Minotaur V rocket, had full power and is in communication with ground control. In less than two weeks, the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. will make its first delivery to the International Space Station, using its own Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule. That commercial launch is scheduled for September 17. ~~~~~ If America could stop being the world's policeman and godfather, these are the kinds of scientific and technical advances that she does extremely well. We were worried when the last manned flight occurred two years ago. But the private sector and NASA are proving the value of joint efforts to explore space and manage what has already been accomplished in cooperation with other countries around the world. Bravo! ~~~~~ You can follow LADEE's journey and watch the NASA TV coverage of the launch on YouTube at this URL : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf0SIRxXvRo&feature=youtube_gdata_player