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NASA's LADEE Rocket Mission To Launch September 6
An anonymous reader writes "NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will orbit Earth for three weeks before heading to the moon for a 100-day trip where it will measure lunar dust and the moon's atmosphere. from the article: 'A $6 million University of Colorado Boulder instrument designed to study the behavior of lunar dust will be riding on a NASA mission to the moon now slated for launch on Friday, Sept. 6, from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The mission, known as the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, will orbit the moon to better understand its tenuous atmosphere and whether dust particles are being lofted high off its surface. The $280 million LADEE mission, designed, developed, integrated and tested at NASA's AMES Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will take about a month to reach the moon and another month to enter the proper elliptical orbit and to commission the instruments. A 100-day science effort will follow.'"
Not _if_ it's dusty, _how_ dusty. Then we can send the correct number of Roombas.
Its a better use than $34 Million for a never used building in Afghanistan, over $1 billion on a DOD/VA health database that has been effectively scrapped, $66 billion on 187 fighter aircraft not likely to ever find a role in todays military.... I could go on but you get the idea.
The visitor's center view of the launch facility is now blocked by a stand of trees that has grown considerably over the years. One recommended viewing area is on the causeway between Chincoteague and Assoteague Islands.
http://www.chincoteague-va.gov/pdf/LADEE%20Rocket%20Launch-Viewing%20Areas.pdf
Another possible site was a location I scouted out last weekend where Arbuckle Neck road dead-ends into Oyster Bay. That gave me this view of the launchpad area. The rocket pad itself is the last tall building to the right of the water tower.