U.S. successful at lunar orbit with LRO spacecraft

William Atkins
Tuesday, 23 June 2009 17:41

Science - Space

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed the necessary maneuvers for insertion into orbit about the Moon. NASA confirms its preliminary lunar orbit at 6:27 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.


The spacecraft called Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) traveled about 4.5 days from the Earth to the Moon, starting on June 18, 2009.

During this time, ground controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Maryland) made a mid-course correction maneuver to the spacecraft in order to assure it would be captured by the gravitational field of the Moon.

Then, at 5:47 Eastern Daylight Time (0947 Greenwich Mean Time) the 2-ton LRO began an approximate 40-minute maneuver that inserted itself into lunar orbit.

This preliminary orbit has its pericynthion (nearest point to the Moon) at 200 kilometers (124 miles) and an apocynthion (furthest point to the Moon) at about 3,000 kilometers (1,863 miles).

In comparison, the Earth is, on average, about 384,400 kilometers (238,850 miles) away from the Moon.

According to NASA’s June 23, 2009 media brief NASA Lunar Mission Successfully Enters Moon Orbit, Cathy Pedie, the LRO’s deputy project manager at GFSC, stated, "Lunar orbit insertion is a crucial milestone for the mission. The LRO mission cannot begin until the moon captures us. Once we enter the moon's orbit, we can begin to buildup the dataset needed to understand in greater detail the lunar topography, features and resources. We are so proud to be a part of this exciting mission and NASA's planned return to the moon."

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