[meteorite-list] NASA's GRAIL Moon Twins are Joined to Their Booster

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:51:34 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201108182351.p7INpYDu010185_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-257

NASA's GRAIL Moon Twins are Joined to Their Booster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 18, 2011

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's lunar-bound GRAIL twins were mated to
their Delta II launch vehicle at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's
Launch Complex 17 at 8:45 a.m. EDT (5:45 a.m. PDT) today. The 15-mile
(25-kilometer) trip from Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla.,
is the last move for GRAIL before it begins its journey to the moon.
NASA's dynamic duo will orbit the moon to determine the structure of the
lunar interior from crust to core and to advance understanding of the
thermal evolution of the moon.

"We are about to finish one chapter in the GRAIL story and open
another," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL's principal investigator, based at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Let me assure you
this one is a real page-turner. GRAIL will rewrite the book on the
formation of the moon and the beginning of us."

Now that the GRAIL spacecraft are atop their rocket, a final flurry of
checks and tests can begin to confirm that all is go for launch. The
final series of checks begins tomorrow, Aug. 19, with an on-pad
functional test. The test is designed to confirm that the spacecraft is
healthy after the fueling and transport operations. Next week, among all
the upcoming final tests, reviews and closeout operations leading up to
liftoff, the GRAIL team will install the launch vehicle fairing around
the spacecraft.

GRAIL's launch period opens Sept. 8 and extends through Oct. 19. On each
day, there are two separate instantaneous launch opportunities separated
in time by approximately 39 minutes. On Sept. 8, the first launch
opportunity is at 8:37 a.m. EDT (5:37 a.m. PDT). The second launch
opportunity is 9:16 a.m. EDT (6:16 a.m. PDT).

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL
mission. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home
to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. The GRAIL mission
is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built
the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility
of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.

More information about GRAIL is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/grail and
http://grail.nasa.gov . .

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

Tracy Young 321-867-9284
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
tracy.g.young at nasa.gov

2011-257
Received on Thu 18 Aug 2011 07:51:34 PM PDT