Lockheed rockets NASA to moon

is playing a part in

’s plan to return humans to the surface of the moon by providing its Atlas V rocket to launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission.

The mission will be launched from Cape Canaveral using an Atlas V 401 configuration. This includes a single common core booster powered by the RD-180 engine system, providing around 4.4m Newtons of thrust at lift-off. The Atlas V 401 vehicle will also use a 4-metre fairing to protect the LRO spacecraft during the ascent through the earth’s atmosphere. Once the boost phase of flight is complete, the Centaur upper stage will perform two engine burns to place LRO into a lunar transfer trajectory.

Atlas will launch LRO in the autumn of 2008, along with a secondary payload called the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). Following delivery of LRO to its required lunar transfer orbit, the Centaur upper stage will perform a series of manoeuvres to place LCROSS into a separate trajectory that will result in lunar impact.