Lunar Atmospheric and Dust Environment Explorer...LADEE !!!

An unmanned NASA exlporer has blasted into space to collect detailed information on the Moon's atmosphere and its surface conditions. It will unmask the mystery surrounding the Moon's thin atmosphere and the reason behind its glow on its horizon.

This six month mission is having Lunar Atmospheric and Dust Environment Explorer(LADEE) orbit into the Moon and giving NASA engineers more understanding of environmental influences on lunar udust by giving a better picture of the structure and composition of the moon.

Launched from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia a cacophony of cheers from onlookers, taking 30 days for the explorer to reach its destination, performed  an engine burn last week taking its orbit around the moon.

LADEE made three elliptical orbits around the Earth moving into a higher orbit on each pass around the planet, before setting in Lunar orbit.

"The Moon's tenuous atmosphere may be more common in the solar system than we thought", John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington said before the launch last month. "Further understanding of the Moon's atmosphere may also help us better understand our diverse solar system and its evolution", said Grunsfeld.

LADEE was built using a general purpose spacecraft design that allows NASA to develop, assemble and test multiple modules at the same time.