Credit: NASA
Getting the twins ready for launch. Image Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
All is in readiness at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 17B in Florida for Thursday’s liftoff of NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft.
A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is being used for the September 8 launch, with two windows available: 8:37:06 a.m. and 9:16:12 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
The spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the Moon for several months to measure its gravity field.
GRAIL’s primary science objectives include determining the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core, and understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon.
For a special fact sheet on the mission, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/578754main_grail.pdf
By Leonard David