Artist concept of GRAIL mission. Grail will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. © NASA/JPL

BEIJING, Sept. 6 — NASA will launch on Thursday twin lunar orbiters built to map the gravity of Earth’s moon in unprecedented detail, media reported Tuesday.

The twin lunar probes, Graili-A and Graili-B, will blast off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:37 a.m. EDT and at 9:16 a.m. EDT respectively Thursday, according to NASA.

The Grail twins will travel three to four months to get to the moon under a slower but more economical plan.

The two spacecrafts will reach the moon around New Year’s Day when they will begin to probe the moon’s composition from the crust to the core, according to NASA.

The data collected by the probes will be used to better understand the moon’s evolution and formation, NASA scientists said.

Researchers will also use the twin probes to pinpoint the best landing sites for future explorations.

The mission, from start to finish, costs 496 million U.S. dollars. The two Grail probes will crash into the moon after its mission. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2011-09/06/c_131103031.htm

The Russian Soyuz TMA-15 capsule landed as planned at 10:17 a.m. Moscow time (07:17 GMT) about 85 km north of the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan.

The capsule carrying Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and European Space Agency’s astronaut Frank De Winne of Belgium, touched down without a hitch, said Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin.

“The landing was very soft; we were lucky not to have any wind,” Romanenko said in televised remarks after leaving the capsule. “Everything went quite nicely; there were no problems whatsoever.”

The crew will fly back to Russia’s space training center in Star City, outside Moscow, on Tuesday for a reunion with their families and for training on how to deal with gravity after six months on the space station, according to NASA.

Two astronauts, NASA’s Jeff Williams and Russia’s Maxim Suraev, will remain on the space station until the arrival of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA’s Timothy J. Creamer, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Dec. 21. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/01/content_12571381.htm

Space shuttle Endeavour is pictured after mission managers scrubbed another launch attempt at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida July 13, 2009. Lightning strikes and thunderstorms near the seaside launch pad forced NASA on Monday to delay yet again the launch of shuttle Endeavour on a mission to the International Space Station. ©Reuters

BEIJING, July 15 — NASA plans to try the sixth time early Wednesday evening to launch space shuttle Endeavour with seven astronauts on board, media reports said.

NASA has cancelled the launch of Endeavour for the fifth time Monday due to thunderstorms near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission was postponed three times by thunderstorms and two times by hydrogen gas leaks.

NASA hopes the weather would finally cooperate Wednesday. Forecast shows the odds of good weather on Wednesday evening is 60 percent.

If the shuttle’s sixth launch attempt failed, it would set the record.

The shuttle must be launched by Wednesday or it will have to wait for a Russian supply run to the International Space Station.

The mission of Endeavour is to deliver spare parts to the space station and a last segment of the Japanese Kibo lab.

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/15/content_11711205.htm