Grail Launch Campaign Enters Final Phase

The moon has captivated humanity's collective imagination for hundreds of years, but despite study with telescopes, astronauts and robotic probes, our nearest neighbor remains a mystery. NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission (GRAIL) features twin spacecraft setting off on a challenging mission to map the moon's gravity. What they learn could teach us more about the moon's past -- and how the inner solar system's rocky planets developed.Technicians will begin arriving around 8 p.m. EDT tonight for final engineering walkdown inspections of the vehicle and work to ready the tower-on-wheels for retraction to reveal the 12-story rocket. The actual moving of the gantry is expected to occur sometime between 10:30 p.m. and midnight EDT, weather permitting. Meteorologists still predicting a 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions for liftoff to occur on schedule. Thursday's launch, liftoff is planned for 8:37:06 a.m. EDT.

Origin: chupacabra-digest.blogspot.com