NASA's new moon probe sends back moon shots

June 24, 2009

(AP) -- NASA's new lunar probe launched less than a week ago has already sent back some shots of the moon.

The satellite swung by the moon Tuesday and took pictures for an hour, passing within 2,000 miles. Now, it's well past the moon in an elongated orbit around Earth. In October, it will slam into a crater at the moon's south pole.

A second spacecraft launched aboard the same rocket is now circling the moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is expected to provide a precise 3-D map of the moon and help pinpoint safe landing spots for astronauts.

The two spacecraft are part of NASA's effort to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.

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On the Net:

NASA: http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/

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• Iztaru - Jun 24, 2009
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  Where is the link to the pictures?
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• deatopmg - Jun 24, 2009
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  @Iztaru They're not important, the pictures go thru a private organization, MSSS, before they are released to the public. So what we get are degraded jpeg's of the raw pictures NASA gets.
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• Sepp - Jun 25, 2009
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  @Iztaru,
  
  just the question I was going to ask. Where can we see the pictures?
  
  So we will be treated to 2nd hand (and very probably photoshopped) pictures once they have been released...
  
  Couldn't really release those valuable pics to the public, could they (NASA)?
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• sloopdog - Jun 26, 2009
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  http://www.nasa.g...dex.html
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• Chase_O_ - Jun 26, 2009
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  Who writes an article about pictures of something without including the pictures?
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