The LRO-LCROSS launch is set for a 5:12EDT (3:12 MDT) (21UT) today. (At the time of this posting, the launch counter is at 4:40.) The following message was just posted on another newsgroup by the Horizons Team. The LCROSS Centaur booster trans-lunar orbit projected coordinates have been updated into the Horizons system. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi Use "LCROSS" as the "Target Body". RA-Dec predicted positions are topocentric sensitive, so use your local "named location" city as the geographic location, not geocentric. Live coverage begins at 2pm EDT (20UT). http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html KSC live launchpad video of the launch can be seen at: http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/ Typical pre-launch countdown activities for an Atlas V launch can be found at: NASA Atlas V Countdown 101 FAQ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/launch/atlas_V_count_101.html A primitive first-order model of outbound Centaur visibility during trans lunar orbit can be found at physical pages 7, 74-83 (digital pages 10, 77-86) of Issue No. 13 of Selenology Today at: http://digidownload.libero.it/glrgroup/selenologytoday13.pdf (4.5 megs) (mag 6.5 at 5k decreasing to mag 13.8 at 150,000k) There is no magnitude estimate in the Horizons system empheris. There is no list of scheduled hydrogen fuel dumps. At a mission briefing on June 16, an LRO project scientist stated all fuel dumps would be completed before hand-off of the Centaur to LCROSS team flight control 4 hours into the flight. - Clear Skies Kurt ======= Horizons Message With the shuttle launch scrubbed, the Moon-fated LCROSS mission is currently go for 2009-Jun-18 21:12 UTC launch (tomorrow). The trajectory has been updated accordingly in Horizons (based on navigation team planning), for those who want to track it, or avoid confusing it for an asteroid in Earth vicinity. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons ---------------------------------------------------------- Jon Giorgini | Navigation & Mission Design Section Senior Analyst | Solar System Dynamics Group Jon.Giorg...@jpl.nasa.gov | Jet Propulsion Laboratory ==========