Lunar Prospector, the first exclusively-NASA mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 25 years ago, successfully launched January 6 from Cape Canaveral and made its way into lunar orbit several days later.
     A Lockheed Martin Athena II rocket launched Lunar Prospector at 9:28pm EST January 6 (0228 UT Jan. 7) from the new commercial Spaceport Florida launch site at Cape Canaveral. The three-stage Athena II, on its maiden flight, performed flawlessly, delivering the spacecraft into a temporary parking orbit before a booster engine placed the spacecraft on a lunar trajectory about one hour after launch.
     Following a 4 1/2 day cruise to the Moon, Lunar Prospector entered a preliminary lunar orbit on Sunday, January 12 in the first of three planned thruster firings. The spacecraft is expected to enter its final orbit, a circular orbit 100 km (62 mi.) above the lunar surface, after a final thruster burn Thursday.
     "We're basically there," said project scientist Alan Binder at a January 13 press conference. "This [the Thursday thruster burn] is just a typical tweaking maneuver you make at the very end."
     The instruments on Lunar Prospector have been turned on and are already beginning to return data about the Moon, officials said.
     The mission to date has been relatively uneventful, with almost no problems reported by mission controllers at NASA's Ames Research Center. "The mission so far has felt like we're flying simulations -- it's been that smooth," Binder told UPI.
     The launch of Lunar Prospector was delayed one day when a ground control radar operated by the Air Force failed. The radar was one of several used to track the rocket after launch. The radar was especially critical since the Athena II used a more vertical trajectory than typical Cape launches, meaning the rocket was near land and populated areas longer than usual.
     Had the January 6 launch been scrubbed, NASA would have postponed the launch to early February, when the low-energy trajectory Lunar Prospector used to reach the Moon would next have been available. The launch had already been pushed back several times since late September due to delays in testing the Athena II (formerly LMLV-2) launcher.
     Once Lunar Prospector enters its final orbit, it will begin a detailed survey of the composition of the lunar surface. Other instruments on the spacecraft will measure the magnetic and gravity fields of the Moon, and study the Moon's internal structure.
     Of particular interest will be permanently shadowed regions of the south pole, where traces of water ice may be hidden. Clementine, a U.S. Defense Department satellite with some participation from NASA that orbited the Moon in 1994, detected what some scientists believe to be ice. However, those findings have been disputed by others with ground-based data, who detect no such deposits of water ice.
     Lunar Prospector also carries a special payload. NASA announced a day before the launch that a small container with several grams of the ashes of the late planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker was on the spacecraft. Shoemaker, a leading lunar scientist, trained the Apollo astronauts who would walk on the moon but was unable to go himself because of a health problem.
     The tribute to Shoemaker was made with the cooperation of NASA and friends and family of Shoemaker, and organized by University of Arizona professor Carolyn Porco, a former student of Shoemaker. "I felt that this was Gene's last chance to get to the moon, and that it would be a fitting and beautiful tribute to a man who was a towering figure and a pioneer in the exploration of the solar system," she said.
     The container that carries Shoemaker's ashes was provided by Celestis, a company that provides similar space memorial services.

The crew of the Russian space station Mir performed a pair of spacewalks this month, including one unsuccessful attempt to repair a leaking hatch, while dealing with yet another problem with the station's computer system.
     Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov spent just three hours outside Mir January 8 in an effort to repair a leaking hatch on the Kvant-2 module. The hatch, used by cosmonauts to enter and exit the station during spacewalks, failed to seal after a November spacewalk, forcing the crew to depressurize the Kvant-2 airlock and use an interior room in the module as a makeshift airlock.
     Solovyov and Vinogradov found that one of the 10 main locks on the hatch had broken, and five of 10 backup locks had failed to latch, leaving a gap nearly 1 cm (0.4 in.) wide. Mission controllers decided the cosmonauts would not have time to repair the broken lock during their scheduled six-hour spacewalk, and instructed them instead to latch all the locks when closing the hatch.
     However, the locks failed to completely seal the hatch after the spacewalk was completed. Russian mission control officials reported that the pressure in the airlock has dropped by about 100 millibars three days after the spacewalk. "The leak has become slower, but there is still a leak," said spokesman Viktor Blagov.
     Solovyov and Wolf spent nearly four hours outside Mir on the afternoon of January 14, using a spectrometer to take readings on the hull of Mir to see how it has faired after spending nearly twelve years in orbit. The spacewalk was delayed by about a half-hour due to problems with the hatch, and wrapped up early so the spacewalkers would have more time to deal with the balky hatch.
     Wednesday's spacewalk was the 16th for Solovyov, who has now spent nearly 80 hours in spacewalks, a world record. The spacewalk was the first for Wolf, who received extra guidance from Solovyov and Russian mission controllers while working outside the station.
     "This is very spectacular," Wolf said after the spacewalk. "I'd like to do it again."
     The crew also had to deal with another problem with Mir's computer. The computer system failed early Friday, January 2, forcing the crew to shut down most systems as the solar cells on the station drifted out of alignment with the Sun. The computer was repaired, and power restored, the following day.
     All three crew members are nearing the end of their stays on Mir. Wolf will be relieved by astronaut Andy Thomas when the shuttle Endeavour docks with Mir later this month. A Soyuz is scheduled for launch at the end of January, carrying two Russian cosmonauts to relieve Solovyov and Vinogradov as well as French guest cosmonaut Leopold Eyarts.

NASA gave the green light January 8 for the January 22 launch of the shuttle Endeavour on a nine-day mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir for the next to last time.
     Mission STS-89 is scheduled for launch on the 22nd at 9:48pm EST 90248 UT Jan. 23), at the beginning of a five-minute launch window. If the shuttle launched on time landing is scheduled for 5:36pm EST (2236 UT) January 31 at the Kennedy Space Center.
     The mission will feature the eighth and next-to-last docking of the shuttle with Mir. Astronaut Andy Thomas, who will fly up on Endeavour, will take the place of David Wolf on Mir. Wolf will return to Earth with the rest of the Endeavour crew, ending his four-month tour of duty on the Russian space station.
     In addition to the astronaut exchange approximately 3,200 kg (7,000 lbs.) of food, equipment, and other supplies will be transferred between the shuttle and Mir.
     The seven-person crew of STS-89 is commanded by Terrence Wilcutt and includes four rookie astronauts, among them Salizhan Sharipov, a cosmonaut from Kirghizia who trained at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Veteran astronaut Bonnie Dunbar will be making her fifth flight in space on STS-89 as a mission specialist.
     STS-89 was originally slated for a January 15 launch, but was delayed five days last month at the request of the Russian government, who wanted to give the Mir crew more time to complete experiments before the arrival of the shuttle. An additional two-day delay was added when technicians needed time to remove extra insulation from the external tank of the shuttle.