KSC-2009-1929

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A truck moves the shrouded Atlas V first stage booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's skid strip in Florida on its way to the Atlas Space Operations Center on CCAFS. The booster arrived at CCAFS aboard a Russian AH-124-100 aircraft. 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. 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