KSC-2009-2994

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., technicians begin placing the protective bag around the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, before it is mated with NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, known as LCROSS, spacecraft. The satellite's primary mission is to search for water ice on the moon in a permanently shadowed crater near one of the lunar poles. LCROSS is a low-cost, accelerated-development, companion mission to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. 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. Launch is targeted for no earlier than June 2 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller