The GRAIL Will Be Lifted By ULA

NASA has designated the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission to fly aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy rocket. The liftoff will occur from Space Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, during Q3 of 2011. Part of NASA’s Discovery Program, GRAIL will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. The mission will also answer longstanding questions about Earth’s moon and provide scientists a better understanding of how the Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system are formed. NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, will manage the GRAIL mission. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, Colorado, will build the spacecraft. Scientists will use the gravity field information from the two satellites to X-ray the moon from crust to core to reveal the moon’s subsurface structures and, indirectly, its thermal history—Denver, Colorado