Tim Dunn. NASA Launch Manager. GRAIL: "Our team. especially. gets excited
whenever we leave Earth orbit. and going to the moon excites us and
excites the public."
Three
Two
One
Zero and lift off of the Delta II with GRAIL.
On the morning of September 10. 2011. a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket
launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 17.
The venerable and reliable rocket successfully sent NASA's twin moon-bound GRAIL
spacecraft on their way at 9:08 a.m. Eastern Time. beginning a mission to map the gravity
field of Earth's closest neighbor.
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission. or GRAIL. features twin
spacecraft that will fly in tandem orbits around the moon. to study it in unprecedented
detail. This will give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky
planets in the solar system formed.
David Lehman. Project Manager. GRAIL: "Its sole purpose is to measure gravity of the
moon. to try to help us understand how the planets were formed. and how they evolved
over time."
Clues about our own planet's history -- and the influence of the moon's gravity on Earth.
240.000 miles away -- could be locked below that dusty lunar surface.
David Lehman. Project Manager. GRAIL: knowing what happened with the moon will
help us understand what happened with the Earth. Venus. Mercury. and Mars.
We're trying to understand the past formation of the planets. so that will help us learn
the future."
At the mission's end. the GRAIL spacecraft will be decommissioned.
eventually impacting the lunar surface.