Swaps Launch Slot With USAF Space Drone

Saying the decision provides mutual benefits to the space agency and the Air Force, on Thursday NASA announced it will delay the launch of its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter until February 2009 at the earliest, and swap its position on the pad at Cape Canaveral with a USAF spacecraft.

The agency said United Launch Alliance, which builds the Atlas V rocket to be used on the LRO mission, approached NASA about switching launch slots with the Air Force.

NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma told The Associated Press the delay gives the agency some breathing room to insure the LRO mission's success, and provides additional launch opportunities down the line. The robotic spacecraft was originally scheduled to blast off in December.

Hautalouma maintained NASA could have met that timeline, but "when we looked at the trade-offs ... it seemed like a wise thing to do."

Instead, the USAF will launch its prototype X-37B reusable satellite. "It was tested and proven ready to go," said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Brown. "We were able to jump ahead."

The delay will cost NASA about $7 million for each month the LRO's launch is delayed. The $491 million orbiter's primary mission is to circle the moon's poles, mapping the surface for a suitable landing site for a future manned mission. A small impacter probe will also be launched towards the lunar surface, to measure for signs of water.

The decision is a figurative setback to the agency's lunar program, as it will miss the 2008 deadline established by President Bush to have a robotic spacecraft orbiting the moon. Despite the delay, however, NASA says it's still on track to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2020.

LRO Program manager Craig Tooley told the AP his team welcomed "a little more breathing room, but there was also a fair amount of disappointment" about the delay.

FMI: http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/