WASHINGTON - NASA blasted two probes into space on Thursday on a landmark lunar exploration mission to scout water sources and landing sites in anticipation of sending mankind back to the moon in 2020.
THE Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, hopes to learn more about the moon through a one-year stay at an orbit of about 50km - the closest continual lunar orbit of any spacecraft.
LRO's US$500 million mission is designed to provide Nasa with maps of unprecedented accuracy, which will be crucial for scoping out possible landing sites.
The launch marked 'America's first step in a lasting return to the moon,' a Nasa official said moments after a rocket carrying the probes launched at 5.32pm (2132 GMT, 5.32am Singapore time), a day after the US space agency scrubbed the shuttle Endeavour launch for the second time in a week because of a nagging hydrogen fuel leak.
The liftoff of the dual LRO and LCROSS missions atop an Atlas V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida occurred one month shy of the 40th anniversary of Nasa's historic first landings on Earth's natural satellite in 1969.
Americans have been the only people to walk on the moon - with the last such outing in 1972 - and the new mission is the first step on the long journey to launch manned missions further into our solar system, to the planet Mars and beyond, from lunar colonies.
US President Barack Obama has said the programme, dubbed the Constellation project, needs to be reviewed, but so far has not cast doubt on its goals.
'The robotic mission will give us information we need to make informed decisions about any future human presence on the moon,' programme manager Todd May told reporters earlier this week.
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) in particular looks set to be one of NASA's most spectacular bids at discovery for years.
To seek out water ice on the moon - a critical component for any planning for manned lunar colonies - the probe will analyse data from ejected lunar material after the separated portion of the rocket, named Centaur, crashes into a permanently shadowed crater, on the dark side of the moon that never sees sunshine.
After examining the moon matter, the explorer will follow the rocket's lead by also hurling itself into the moon at approximately 2.5km per second - some 9,000kmh.
In total, Nasa said, the two impacts will excavate some 500 metric tons of lunar material and begin the search for a long-frozen water source. The project will also examine the moon's mineral makeup. -- AFP
