GRAIL-A Just Hours Away, GRAIL-B Close Behind
NASA's unmanned programs are celebrating the end of 2011 with a
return to the Moon. NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory
(GRAIL)-A spacecraft is within a few hours of its insertion burn
that will place it into lunar orbit. At the time the
spacecraft crossed the milestone at 1:21 p.m. PST Friday (4:21 p.m.
EST), the spacecraft was 30,758 miles from the moon. Launched
aboard the same rocket on Sept. 10, 2011, GRAIL-A's mirror twin,
GRAIL-B, is also closing the gap between itself and the moon.
GRAIL-B is scheduled to perform its lunar orbit insertion burn on
New Year's Day (Jan. 1) at 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST).
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