Universe Today
NASA's newest mission to the Moon, LADEE, launched from Wallops Island in Virginia, lighting up the sky along the US East Coast, allowing millions to see the Minotaur V rocket's brilliance with their own eyes. Some of our readers captured the views as they cheered on the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer as it sailed safely to orbit.
See more images and video below, but first a quick update on how LADEE is doing: there was concern shortly after launch as during technical checkouts the LADEE spacecraft commanded itself to shut down the reaction wheels used to position and stabilize the spacecraft.
According to the LADEE mission operations team at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., this was determined to be the result of fault protection limits put in place prior to launch to safeguard the reaction wheels. The limits that caused the powering off of the wheels soon after activation were disabled, and the reaction wheels were successfully brought back online.
"Our engineers will determine the appropriate means of managing the reaction wheel fault protection program. Answers will be developed over time and will not hold up checkout activities," said Butler Hine, LADEE project manager.
Everything else is checking out fine so far, so enjoy these views:
This video was taken by Richard Drumm, part of the NASA Social LADEE launch event, so he and the group were about 2 miles from the launchpad:
[caption id="attachment_104598" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
LADEE launch over World War II bunker from Cape May, New Jersey. This is a 7-image composite. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_104599" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
LADEE first stage separation, as seen from Fenwick Island, Delaware, about 50 miles away from Wallops Island Launch Complex. 'I was completely floored to see how bright and dramatic the launch was from 50 miles away!' said the photographer. Credit and copyright: Marion Haligowski. [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_104600" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
LADEE launch as seen from Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Credit and copyright: Dan @awkwardrobots.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_104601" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
LADEE spacecraft launching to the moon, as see on the roadside by Mount Olive, New Jersey. Credit and copyright: Scott MacNeill.[/caption]
This timelapse of the launch is from
Chris Moran:
[caption id="attachment_104623" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
Rocket to the Moon from Wallops Island, VA, as seen from Gaithersburg, Maryland. Credit and copyright: Zach Stern. [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_104602" align="aligncenter" width="378"]
LADEE launch as seen from Louisa, Virginia. Credit and copyright: David Murr. [/caption]
Closeup view of launch via
markyj
on Instagram:
LADEE launch video , as seen from Bristol, Pennsylvania, courtesy of Ron Roberts:
If you missed the launch, here's the "official" NASA video:
[caption id="attachment_104603" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
Photograph of LADEE's launch aboard a Minotaur V on Sept. 6, 2013. Image credit: NASA Wallops/Chris Perry[/caption]
Read more about the launch in our post-launch article here.
You can see more great images in
NASA's Flickr pool for the LADEE launch here.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you're giving us permission to post them). Please explain what's in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
