Wednesday, March 21, 2012

GRAIL mission extended

Stephen Clark
Spaceflight Now

NASA has granted an extension of the GRAIL moon mission until December, allowing scientists to complete a more definitive map of the lunar gravity field from a lower orbit, according to agency officials and researchers. The $496 million mission was due to end in June.

The extension was confirmed by Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, and Maria Zuber, the GRAIL mission's principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The twin GRAIL satellites entered orbit around the moon Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, then began taking science observations in early March. GRAIL's baseline mission was supposed to last about three months.

Read the full article HERE.

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