LADEE Begins Collecting Lunar Atmosphere Data

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NASA Spacecraft Begins Collecting Lunar Atmosphere Data

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is ready to begin collecting science data about the moon.

On Nov. 20, the spacecraft successfully entered its planned orbit around the moon's equator -- a unique position allowing the small probe to make frequent passes from lunar day to lunar night. This will provide a full scope of the changes and processes occurring within the moon's tenuous atmosphere.

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NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Begins Science Operations

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, spacecraft has completed the check-out phase of its mission and has begun science operations around the moon. All the science instruments on-board have been examined by the LADEE team and have been cleared to begin collecting and analyzing the dust in the exosphere, or very thin atmosphere, that surrounds the moon.

NASA's Ames Research Center designed, developed, built, and tested the spacecraft and manages mission operations.

For more information about the LADEE mission, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/ladee

For more information about NASA Ames, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/ames

Credit: NASA's Ames Research Center

Source: NASA - Multimedia

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LADEE Project Manager Update: Commissioning Complete

NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) has completed the commissioning phase, and now is ready to begin the mission’s primary science phase. After the successful Orbit Lowering Maneuver (OLM-3) on Nov. 10, LADEE was in an elliptic pre-science orbit. The first six days in this orbit were dedicated to completing the science instrument commissioning, doing opportunistic science measurements in coordination with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, and taking measurements of the impact of the Leonids meteor shower on the lunar environment.

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