LADEE

LADEE is no longer on orbit
LADEE is classified as:

Space & Earth Science

NORAD ID: 39246

Int'l Code: 2013-047A

Launch date: September 7, 2013
Source: United States (US)
Launch site: WALLOPS ISLAND (WLPIS)
Decay date: 2014-04-18

LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) is a NASA moon mission, a $280 million project to study the lunar atmosphere. The small orbiter's instruments will scoop up dust particles, identify the chemical make-up of the moon's atmosphere, and look for signs of hydrated compounds, such as water and hydroxyl (OH), migrating from the moon's middle latitudes toward polar cold traps in permanent shadow, where scientists say ice can sit undisturbed for billions of years. The probe's instruments will try to find out what drives the tenuous atmosphere, its composition, and how new constituents are added from the lunar surface. LADEE will also observe dust particles streaming high above the moon's surface in a mysterious process scientists think is responsible for a predawn glow over the lunar horizon spotted in the 1960s by early robotic missions, then recounted by Apollo astronauts who sketched what they saw in journals.