THE LOCKHEED MARTIN-BUILT Lunar Prospector Orbiter is on schedule for its launch in October 1997 on the third of NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" Solar System missions in the Discovery programme (Flight International, 17-23 January, PP37-38). Lockheed Martin says that spacecraft components are under construction, science instruments are almost ready, and full-up system tests will start in October. The spin-stabilised, 232kg, 1.4m-diameter, 1.24m-long craft, operating on 0.24kW of power, will map the Moon's surface composition, gravity and magnetic fields.
Source: Flight International
