The third stage of the Lockheed Martin Athena launch vehicle is placed atop the vehicle’s second stage at Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Station. Athena is scheduled to carry the Lunar Prospector spacecraft for an 18-month mission that will orbit the Earth’s moon to collect data from the lunar surface. Scientific experiments to be conducted by the Prospector include locating water ice that may exist near the lunar poles, gathering data to understand the evolution of the lunar highland crust and the lunar magnetic field, finding radon outgassing events, and describing the lunar gravity field by means of Doppler tracking. The launch is now scheduled for early-January 1998 KSC-97PC1591
Summary
The third stage of the Lockheed Martin Athena launch vehicle is placed atop the vehicle’s second stage at Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Station. Athena is scheduled to carry the Lunar Prospector spacecraft for an 18-month mission that will orbit the Earth’s moon to collect data from the lunar surface. Scientific experiments to be conducted by the Prospector include locating water ice that may exist near the lunar poles, gathering data to understand the evolution of the lunar highland crust and the lunar magnetic field, finding radon outgassing events, and describing the lunar gravity field by means of Doppler tracking. The launch is now scheduled for early-January 1998
Tags
Date
02/11/1997
Location
Cape Canaveral, FL
Source
NASA
Copyright info
Public Domain Dedication (CC0)