Although man-spaced flight has been put on hold, NASA still has a lot of really cool missions and projects they are working on. One of my hopes is that we get back to the moon and make it a base for manned deep space travel. I came across an article on NextGov which reports that NASA has sent a spacecraft back to the moon.It’s a pretty exciting mission at NASA, NextGov reports:
NASA launched a mission to the moon on Saturday, sending the twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft on a 250,000-mile, three-and-a-half month voyage.
The uncrewed, solar-powered spacecraft is moseying to the moon, taking a low-energy trajectory. It will spend 82 days mapping the moon’s surface and its gravity in the most detail yet.
In a preview of things to come, the rockets were developed from a public-private partnership. Administration officials are hoping that the technology will spur futher innovation in the space flight industry, helping to develop the needed jobs and technology to make deep space manned flight a reality. Who knows, maybe someday one of you will be buckling up for a trip into space. The mission also serves as a much needed morale boast for NASA employees, as many felt demoralized after the final manned space flight in July.
What do you think of the mission for NASA? Are you excited we are heading back to the moon?