Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Update

This blog follows the progress of the LRO mission through Integration and Testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and launch site processing at KSC\Astrotech. Its purpose is to enable communication to the entire LRO Team about the status of ongoing activities.

LRO was launched June 18th, 2009 at 5:32pm EDT from KSC. This BLOG will follow the progress of the mission as LRO travels to the Moon and establishes orbit around it.

This BLOG will be periodically updated during LRO's early mission but as the nominal mission unfolds the official NASA LRO website and the LRO Science Instrument's own websites will evolve into a more interesting sources of LRO science results as postings appear there first and LRO engineering and operations (source of this site) will become increasingly routine.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Ticket to Ride.

We got a break in the weather and were able to make the lift to the transporter(a.k.a. the Lufkin). We are now awaiting good weather to transport to the VIF.

Rain, rain, go away..

The local thunderstorms have prevented us from getting on the transporter and moving out to the VIF. We need a break in the weather to allow us to lift the fairing onto the transporter and then another one to move out to the VIF.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Midnight madness.

The night before encapsulation during final close outs, we took a group photo of the hardy souls who showed up at midnight.

Phil, you're the one in the back. :)

Friday, May 15, 2009

Encapsulation

Photos of LRO getting encapsulated.

Its like putting your five year old on the bus for the first time. :(

Photos courtesy of Gordon Casto & Katheryn Vasquez.

LRO & LCROSS Flight Ready!

The photo above shows LRO atop LCROSS just prior to encapsulation in the Atlas Fairing (seen behind the stacked spacecraft).

LRO has also been informed that our launch date has now officially moved to June 17, 2009.

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance. - Samuel Johnson

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Vehicle at the Pad for WDR

Where's Kevin & Trick? Pictures courtesy of Katheryn Vasquez.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

EGSE in the P-Van.

The SAS rack and the umbilical rack were moved from Astrotech and installed into the P-van where they will stay through launch. The racks had to be tied to the van for the move to the pad. We were able to verify that we could communicate to the racks.