U.S. Shoots for the Moon, This Time to Stay

The U.S. space program: we may have spent the last 40 years mostly ignoring the moon, but when we go back, we go back with a bang. Later today — if weather conditions and hardware permit — NASA will launch its much-anticipated and deeply dimaginative Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the first American spacecraft of any kin to make a lunar trip since 1999. Not only will LRO help us study the