View On Mobile: W're Going Back To the Moon! (Live Stream of NASA Launch)

This is posted from Clouding Around on NASA's moon launch of the LADEE to study its thin atmosphere.  You can download the Ustream app (iTunes) to view it on your mobile.  Whatever you're doing on a Friday night, it's probably worth dropping for a few minutes to watch this live launch.  How often can you say you witness a mission to the moon?

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NASA is due to launch the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer around 2330 (11:30 PM EST).  According to NASA's page,

"LADEE, managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., is scheduled for launch at 11:27 p.m. EDT on Sept. 6 from Pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE, pronounced like "laddie") is a robotic mission that will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the lunar atmosphere, conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust. A thorough understanding of these characteristics will address long-standing unknowns, and help scientists understand other planetary bodies as well."

So, yes, I'll be looking to watching this live wherever I am.  Dinner, coffee, or gym.  The thing is that we want to study the moon's atmosphere (yeah, it has one) before the Chinese, Russian, and us Americans get there.  There is more info about LADEE at the Wiki page.

It'll launch aboard a Minotaur V rocket (more info at Wiki), a 5-stage booster system.

So, look for a live coverage to start soon (now!!!  They're late) and the launch about three hours from now.  This is very exciting.  How often can you say you witness a mission to the moon even if unmanned.

Live streaming video by Ustream