NASA’s heading back to the Moon, and you can see the launch – either live with your own eyes if you live on the US Eastern Seaboard, or online here or on NASA TV. The mission is LADEE, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. As of this writing, the spacecraft sits atop a Minotaur V rocket on Wallops Island, Virginia. Launch is scheduled for 11:27 p.m. EDT on September 6 (0327 UTC Sept. 7). If you live in a swath long the US East Coast that stretches from Naine to North Carolina, check out our detailed information here of how you can see the nighttime launch for yourself, weather permitting.
If you want to watch online, we’ve got NASA’s UStream feed below, and all the online action starts Friday night at 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 GMT, early Saturday.
Of course, if you have NASA TV on your cable or satellite lineup, you can watch on your television. Another option is that The Planetary Society is also have a live show starting an hour before launch at their website. Also the NASA EDGE team also will have a webcast.
Live streaming video by Ustream
For those of you in the viewing area, if you get pictures of the launch, share them with us (and we may post them on UT!) on our Flickr page.
Read more about LADEE here.
The LADEE nighttime launch will be visible to millions of spectators across a wide area of the Eastern US -weather permitting. This map shows the maximum elevation (degrees above the horizon) that the Minotaur V rocket will reach during the Sep. 6, 2013 launch depending on your location along the US east coast. Credit: Orbital Sciences
On the way, smooth launch, as expected.
Go LADEE !
LADEE of the Lake!
wish we could see it from NZ 🙂
A number of fellow ASH members and I witnessed the 11:27 p.m. EDT launch of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) from the Naylor Observatory. It was far more spectacular than I had hoped. When we first saw the five-stage Minotaur V rocket, it was a brilliant reddish negative third-or-fourth magnitude point of light.
I observed the staging of the Minotaur through Celestron 8x42s. The ignition of the second and third stages was fascinating to watch. A relatively long-lasting vapor trail was visible. The rocket’s southeast-to-east trajectory was higher in altitude than I expected. The Minotaur V was visible for about four minutes.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/main/index.html#.UirDuMasjTo
http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/MinotaurV/index.shtml
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/orbitals-minotaur-v-launch-ladee-mission-moon/