NASA Postpones GRAIL Mission Twice in a Row

NASA postponed the GRAIL mission (“Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory”), which was scheduled to start yesterday, for the second time due to high winds around the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.The launch of two unmanned spacecrafts will be Saturday. These ships, which cost $ 500 million, will use gravity instruments to map the moon for the first time.

The mission consists of two probes that provide X-ray images of the crust and the core of the moon, which will help to better understand the structure that lies beneath the surface of the star, its composition and thermal history.

The mission seeks to understand better the relationship between the Earth and its satellite. GRAIL’s two probes will not reach the vicinity of the moon until late this year or early next, depending on when they can finally be launched. The mission will end in early June 2012, when both probes end up crashing into the surface of the moon.