John Keller
Goddard Space Flight Center
Recent Highlights from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was implemented to facilitate scientific and engineering-driven mapping of the lunar surface, identify safe landing sites, search for in situ resources, and measure the space radiation environment. After launch on June 18, 2009, the LRO spacecraft and instruments were activated and calibrated in an eccentric polar lunar orbit until September 15, when LRO was moved to a circular polar orbit with a mean altitude of 50 km. The talk will focus on early results from the mission and on plans for an extended mission under NASA's Science Mission Directorate.