What is required to achieve lunar orbit?
Lunar Prospector was launched from Pad 46 of Spaceport Florida (Cape Canaveral, Florida) aboard a Lockheed Martin Athena II three-stage rocket. As with all other space missions, the spacecraft was first launched into a low Earth orbit, called a “parking orbit.” After circling in this orbit halfway around the Earth, the Trans Lunar Injection Stage (kick motor) of the launch rocket fired, propelling Prospector toward the Moon. After four days of coasting to the Moon, Prospector arrived at a distance 55 miles from the Moon. At that point, the spacecraft’s thrusters (engines) fired in order to slow the vehicle down and settle it into its final lunar orbiting pattern, circling at 63 miles above the surface of the Moon.
