CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) NASA is headed back to the moon, this time to explore its thin atmosphere and rough dust.
The robotic spacecraft LADEE will lift off late Friday night from a U.S. space agency facility in Virginia.
It will be the first moonshot ever from Virginia. Almost all of NASA's previous moon missions over the past 54 years have originated from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The most recent was two years ago.
LADEE is short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer.
