KSC-2009-3778

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Smoke pours across Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as the Atlas V/Centaur carrying NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, known as LCROSS, roars into the sky. The towers around the pad are part of the lightning protection system. LRO and LCROSS are the first missions in NASA's plan to return humans to the moon and begin establishing a lunar outpost by 2020. The LRO also includes seven instruments that will help NASA characterize the moon's surface: DIVINER, LAMP, LEND, LOLA , CRATER, Mini-RF and LROC. Launch was on-time at 5:32 p.m. EDT. Photo credit: NASA/Tom Farrar, Kevin O'Connell