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NASA Delays Moon Probe Until 2009

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The Associated Press

Published: August 15, 2008

LOS ANGELES - NASA has delayed the launch of an unmanned spacecraft to the moon to scout for potential landing sites for astronauts.

The moon craft is the first step in NASA's program to send astronauts back to the moon and beyond. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was supposed to blast off from Cape Canaveral in early December aboard an Atlas V rocket. The launch was pushed back after NASA agreed to swap with the Air Force, which will fly a prototype space drone.
NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma said the new launch window, which opens Feb. 27, 2009, eases schedule pressure and provides additional launch opportunities.

"When we looked at the trade-offs ... it seemed like a wise thing to do," he said this week.
NASA officials insist they could have met the original target. The delay will cost the space agency up to $7 million a month. Hautaluoma said the extra costs were built into the program's reserves.

The swap means NASA will miss the Bush administration's stated goal of exploring the moon with a robotic spacecraft by 2008. NASA plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2020.

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