LADEE Spacecraft Launched from Virginia soon to crash into moon.

The LADEE* science spacecraft launched from Virginia’s coast last year has been orbiting the moon for months and is about to conclude its mission with a crash into the lunar surface. The unmanned spacecraft was the first to be sent from Virginia to the moon, NASA said. With its primary scientific mission completed and its fuel almost exhausted, the intricate package of instruments is being lowered gradually into an orbit as little as a mile or two above the pocked and cratered surface of the moon. NASA said it expects the craft to crash, crumple and break apart “on or before” April 21^st. It was launched on 7^th September, 2013, 03:27 UTC from the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island on Virginia’s Atlantic shore. The facility is operated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, headquartered in Greenbelt, Maryland.



* LADEE stands for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer.