NASA’s Lunar Flashlight satellite will search the moon’s surface for water ice in places that haven’t seen sunlight in billions of years.
Following a delay to its original launch schedule, SpaceX is once again preparing to launch NASA’s Lunar Flashlight satellite, as well as HAKUTO-R Mission 1 in what is the first privately led Japanese mission to attempt a lunar landing.
All being well, the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the payloads will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in the early hours of Sunday, December 11. The launch will be streamed online as it happens, so check below for the precise details on how to watch.
The briefcase-sized Lunar Flashlight satellite will use lasers to search for water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the moon’s South Pole, exploring places that haven’t seen sunlight in billions of years.
During the three-month mission, the Lunar Flashlight will use a reflectometer with four lasers that emit near-infrared light in wavelengths easily absorbed by surface water ice, NASA said, adding, “Should the lasers hit bare rock or regolith (broken rock and dust), the light will reflect back to the spacecraft.
