NASA has once again made history with its launch on Friday of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. They call the probe LADEE, but blatantly mispronounce it as “laddie;” to which I say, “Tut, tut, NASA.”
LADDEE preparing for its historic mission.
As its name suggests, the probe is going to run tests on the atmospheric conditions on the moon as well as changes in the lunar dust due to environmental factors. It will orbit the moon for approximately 100 days, and then crash into the surface at the end of its mission.
LADEE is a test model for low-cost space missions. Since NASA has been receiving considerably less in government funds (and has defunded manned space-travel completely), this mission will be important to allow the program to continue space exploration while maintaining its budget.
The liftoff moment (last Friday at 11:27 p.m.) was visible from much of the east coast. Students at William & Mary were even able to watch the launch from the sunken gardens in the middle of campus.
Liftoff!
Not only is this probe fascinating for its mission, but because it launched from Virginia’s Eastern Shore, it also makes the commonwealth a lunar launch site for the first time. Considering that Virginia’s NASA outpost in the city of Hampton has been a major participant in NASA training missions for decades, this is a huge deal.
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