KSC-2009-1924

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's skid strip in Florida, the shrouded Atlas V first stage booster is moved out of the Russian AH-124-100 aircraft onto a transporter. The Atlas V is the launch vehicle for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, known as LCROSS. The booster will be taken to the Atlas Space Operations Center on CCAFS. Launch is scheduled no earlier than May 20. LCROSS and LRO are the first missions in NASA's plan to return humans to the moon and begin establishing a lunar outpost by 2020. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann