NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) launched late Friday, but experienced a slight glitch. Now, researchers are looking for a solution which will enable the robotic moon probe to orient itself properly.<\/p>\n
After a near-perfect launch late Friday (Sept. 6), NASA's newest moon probe has encountered its first glitch on the road to Earth's nearest neighbor. <\/p>\n
Subscribe Today to the Monitor <\/p>\n
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition <\/p>\n
NASA's roboticLunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer(LADEE) blasted off atop a Minotaur V rocket from here at the space agency's Wallops Flight Facility in a dazzling Friday night launch that was visible from wide stretches of the U.S. East Coast. <\/p>\n
Although thelaunch was nearly flawless, LADEE ran into some trouble right after its separation from the Minotaur V. The probe's onboard computer shut down LADEE's reaction wheels, which are used to stabilize the attitude of the probe in space, after noticing that they were drawing too much current. [See spectacular launch photos of NASA's LADEE moon probe] <\/p>\n
But there's no reason to panic, NASA officials said. <\/p>\n
\"This is not an unusual event in spacecraft,\" Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., which is leading the LADEE mission, said during a press conference in the wee hours of Saturday morning (Sept. 7). LADEE was developed and built at the Ames center. <\/p>\n
\"I've been involved with a lot of missions, particularly missions with small spacecraft,\" Worden said. \"[They] quite often have things that don't come on the way you want. The really important thing is that we have full communications. Everything is healthy onboard the spacecraft. Everything is working, and the computer did what it was supposed to do.\" <\/p>\n
Engineers will work to develop a repair plan over the next few days. But there's not a great deal of time pressure at the moment, Worden said. LADEE will take nearly a month to get to the moon on its long and looping route. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Continued here: <\/p>\n
NASA: There's time to fix robotic explorer before moon landing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) launched late Friday, but experienced a slight glitch. Now, researchers are looking for a solution which will enable the robotic moon probe to orient itself properly. Continue reading