NASA LRO Weekly Report, Week Ending 09.11.09

LRO Status

LRO commissioning has continued according to plan. On Wednesday September 9th the LRO Completion of Commissioning Review was held and it was confirmed that would execute MOI and proceed to the 50km nominal mission orbit on September 15th , thus beginning the prime ESMD Exploration mission. All instrument teams reported and defended their readiness to proceed with the primary mission. The status of the LRO Spacecraft and Ground Systems was also reviewed. The Instruments, the Spacecraft, and the Ground Systems continue to operate essentially flawlessly. There are no significant open issues or problems that preclude the start of the nominal mission.

The above review was followed the next day by a LRO Payload Science Working Group (PSWG) meeting. Each Instrument team presented examples of their recent results and then the meeting focused on support of the upcoming LCROSS lunar impact on October 9th. During LRO’s first Station-Keeping Maneuver on September 26th LRO’s orbit will be phased in preparation for observing the LCROSS impact event.

Upcoming Events

MOI Start 9/15/2009

LCROSS Impact 10/92009

ESMD Mission Completion 9/17/2010