NASA Spacecraft En Route to Moon

NASA has launched a rocket that will take the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to the Moon. The Atlas V Rocket was launched at 2:32 PM Pacific Time on Thursday June 18, from Cape Canaveral

The LRO will remain in low orbit above the moon and map the surface of the Moon.

NASA will use the information obtained from these two spacecraft to determine the best landing sites for astronauts arriving on the Moon. NASA hopes to send astronauts to the Moon again by 2020 and then to build a base on the Moon. Future missions to Mars would take off from the new Moon base.

In 2008, scientists found water in fragments from lunar volcanoes that Apollo astronauts had brought back to Earth. NASA is hoping that LCROSS will find more water on the Moon. If water is found, it can be used for drinking and as a source of oxygen.

The Phoenix Mars Lander found water ice on Mars in 2008.

The LRO is focusing on the Moon's north and south poles because they are the most likely places for astronauts to land. According to LRO scientist Richard Vondrak, astronauts would find it easiest to gather sunlight at the poles. Sunlight could be used for solar energy and heat.

The last manned mission to the Moon was in 1972.

NASA had postponed the launch by one day to accommodate the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which was supposed to lift off on Wednesday, June 17. The shuttle launch has since been delayed for the second time in a week because of a hydrogen leak. The shuttle is now scheduled to be launched in July.

The Obama administration is reviewing NASA's space program.