NASA Delays Next Moon Probe's Launch to June

NASA has pushed back the launch of its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission again, this time to June 2 at the earliest, due to a launch delay of the U.S. Air Force's Wideband Global Satcom-2 (WGS-2) communications satellite.

The lunar orbiter is NASA?s vanguard mission for the agency?s plan to return humans to the moon by 2020 aboard its new Orion spacecraft and Altair lunar landers. NASA also plans to launch a second probe with the orbiter to slam into the moon?s surface as part of a hunt for water ice.

Both LRO and the military?s WGS-2 satellite are slated to launch from the same pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard Atlas 5 rockets. Denver-based United Launch Alliance, manufacturer and operator of the Atlas and Delta rockets, needs about 60 days between launches for ground processing.

The launch of WGS-2, now set for April 3, was scrubbed in March when a leak was detected in the Atlas 5 Centaur upper stage's oxidizer valve. Once the WGS-2 launch occurs, United Launch Alliance can begin preparations for the LRO liftoff.

NASA has delayed LRO?s launch several times due to a crowded launch manifest and now two WGS-2 delays. The original goal was to launch LRO before the end of 2008. Other launch dates had been set in April and May.

Todd May, NASA?s deputy associate administrator for science, said the agency?s launch windows for LRO span a limited four-day period that begins once every 12 days. NASA will try to launch LRO between June 2 and June 6, May said Wednesday.

LRO will map the moon in unprecedented detail and search for water and other resources that could pave the way for humans to stay for extended periods on the lunar surface. Its companion spacecraft, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is designed to crash into the lunar surface and create a plume so large that it can be observed by scientists on the ground. The plume will be studied for signs of water ice in the shadowed polar regions of the moon.

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