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Lift Off for NASA's Lunar Probes

from BBC News Online

Nasa has successfully launched two spacecraft to the Moon on missions that will pave the way for a return to the lunar surface by US astronauts. LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and a crater observation mission blasted off from Florida on an Atlas V rocket.

Data gathered by LRO will help mission planners select future landing sites and scout locations for lunar outposts. The second mission will send a rocket crashing into the Moon to scour the debris plume for evidence of water ice.

... LRO will enter a low polar orbit around the Moon at an altitude of around 31 miles - the closest any spacecraft has continually orbited Earth's natural satellite.