NASA - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

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LRO's Project Site

Learn more about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from the project Web site maintained by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

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LCROSS Web Site

The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in California, launched with LRO on June 18, 2009. LCROSS will search for water ice in a permanently shadowed crater near one of the moon's poles. Visit the Web site below for more information about LCROSS and the crater impact.

› Visit the site

Destination: Moon

Learn all about NASA's journey back to the moon by reading this four-part series, authored by Dr. Paul Lowman, of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

› Read the series

Top Story

3D Measurements of Apollo 14 Landing Site

Close-up map of Apollo 14 landing site using 3D measurements from LRO

01.29.10

Images from the LRO Camera taken at slightly different angles were used to make 3D measurements of the Apollo 14 landing site.

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Mission News

Looking for information on LCROSS? Click here.

Additional Resources
› LRO Fact Sheet
› LRO Lithograph
› LRO/LCROSS Press Kit

Five Things to Know about LRO

LRO is leading NASA’s way back to the moon.
The primary objective of LRO is to conduct investigations that prepare for future lunar exploration. Specifically LRO will scout for safe and compelling landing sites, locate potential resources (with special attention to the possibility of water ice) and characterize the effects of prolonged exposure to the lunar radiation environment. In addition to its exploration mission, LRO will also return rich scientific data that will help us to better understand the moon’s topography and composition.
Seven scientific instruments outfit LRO. These instruments will return lunar imagery, topography, temperature measurements and more.
Launched along with LRO was the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), a partner mission that will search for water ice on the moon.
In response to LRO's "Send Your Name to the Moon" initiative, the spacecraft carries a microchip with nearly 1.6 million names submitted by the public. Click here to view a photo of the microchip containing the names as engineers prepare to install it on the spacecraft.

News and Features

LRO Team Begins to Release New Image Series

The LRO team begins a new series of featured images today that highlight regions of interest for potential future human and robotic lunar exploration.
LROC Prepares for Planetary Data System Data Transfer →

The first Planetary Data System (PDS) LRO data release will occur in mid-March 2010. To help interested users familiarize themselves with the data before the official release date the LROC team will periodically release draft data.
NASA Unveils Latest Results From Lunar Mission

NASA is unveiling the latest results from LRO at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
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Popular Science Recognizes LRO in 'Best of What's New'

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is cited as one of the best innovations in aviation in the December issue of Popular Science.