NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, spacecraft has completed the check-out phase of its mission and has begun science operations around the moon. All the science instruments on-board have been examined by the LADEE team and have been cleared to begin collecting and analyzing the dust in the exosphere, or very thin atmosphere, that surrounds the moon.
NASA's Ames Research Center designed, developed, built, and tested the spacecraft and manages mission operations.
For more information about the LADEE mission, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/ladee
For more information about NASA Ames, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/ames