Successful LOI-E Burn!!

We have just successfully completed our Lunar Orbit Insertion Engineering (LOI-E) burn!! All systems continue to perform nominally. Preparations continue for our LOI-1 burn.

LRO Launch from the LRO MOC at GSFC

The LRO Mission Operations Team at the LRO Mission Operations Center (MOC) at Goddard Space Flight Center watching LRO's launch and taking over operations of the LRO Spacecraft as it begins its journey to the moon.

LRO Update

LRO has slowed to a crawl relative to the earth (245 m/s,547 mph) and it at essentially lunar distance (352000km,219000mi) When the moon catches up to us early tomorrow morning we'll execute our LOI-1 burn to capture into our initial orbit.

A note to those leaving comments: This BLOG is updated by the LRO Project Manager and his Deputy at this point. Unfortunately neither of us have time to moderate and reply/respond/post the comments. I do read them as they flow through my inbox but for now that is as far as they go. Sorry.

LRO Status & Upcoming Events

The preliminary work leading to our LOI has begun. All spacecraft systems are healthy. Below is a timeline of key upcoming events:

6/22 10:33pm EDT - Final LOI Maneuver Plan Generation & Verification
6/22 11:05pm EDT - LOI-E (Engineering Burn ~30sec)
6/23 1:05am EDT - Load LOI-1 Maneuver Tables
6/23 4:00am EDT - Shift Handover Briefing
6/23 4:47am EDT - Pre-LOI-1 Configuration Verification Begins
6/23 5:47am EDT - LOI-1 Burn Begins
6/23 6:27am EDT - LOI-1 Burn Complete, LRO in lunar orbit
6/23-6/27 - LOI-2 thru LOI-5 burns, approximately one per day.
6/27 - 30x216km commissioning polar orbit established

B-I-G (Boring is Good)

Our new motto: B.I.G. "Boring is Good"....things continue to go smoothly as LRO cruises towards the moon. LRO is now 339, 838 km from the Earth. We are getting ready for the Lunar Orbit Insertion Engineering (LOI-E) burn which will occur in approximately 23 hours. We are also preparing for the LOI-1 burn which will occur in approximately 29 hours.

White Sands 1 (WS1) has successfully supported S and Ka-Band support for our mission. This is a great milestone with our new ground station enabling clean data transfer from the LRO spacecraft to the MOC at 100 Mbps. Also, solid commanding capability to our spacecraft as it cruises to the moon.

CRaTER, the 1st instrument to be turned on, is reporting good, solid data and has produced their 1st LET spectrum in all 6 detectors from the 1st 10 minutes of data received. LEND is now in their optimal configuration for LOI burns.

LRO Status 6/21/200 10:17am EDT

A calm and boring day thus far (this is good). Gyro mini-cal was completed. Another notable that actually occurred last night was a successful Ka-band file download to WS-1 at 100 Mbps! We are almost at lunar distance and have not yet even calibrated the High Gain Antenna System yet, an activity planned during spacecraft commissioning.

LRO Location

This plot shows the trajectories of LRO and the Moon relative to the Earth (ECI). LRO continues to slow relative to the earth and the moon is gaining on us, as planned.

Quiet Shift & Happy Father's Day!

LRO continues to cruise happily towards the moon. As of 07:30 GMT (3:30 EDT), LRO is 302, 978 km from the Earth.

It was a quiet shift for us, we continue LEND calibration configurations and station handover activities.