ROBOTIC: NASA to launch moon probe

NASA is making final preparations to launch a robotic mission to study the moon’s thin atmosphere, the agency said Aug. 22.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), a probe the size of a small car, is scheduled to take off late Sept. 6 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.

Built by NASA, LADEE will orbit the moon to increase knowledge about the structure and composition of the lunar atmosphere, including whether dust is being lofted into the sky. Such knowledge could also help researchers better understand other bodies in the solar system, including large asteroids, the agency said.

The mission will also test a new laser communication system to determine whether it could provide faster satellite communications.

LADEE will ride into space aboard a U.S. Air Force Minotaur V rocket, an excess ballistic missile converted into a space launch vehicle by Orbital Sciences Corp.

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