Getting your player ready...
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is headed back to the moon, this time to explore its thin atmosphere and rough dust.
The robotic spacecraft LADEE will fly to the moon by way of Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Liftoff is set for late Friday night from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
Scientists involved in the $280 million, moon-orbiting mission want to examine the lunar atmosphere. The atmosphere is so thin and delicate that spacecraft landings can disturb it. So now is the time to go, said NASA scientist Sarah Noble, before other countries and even private companies start bombarding the moon and fouling up the atmosphere. Just last week, China announced plans to launch a lunar lander by year’s end.
