NASA LADEE Moon Probe: Engineers fix Reaction Wheel Glitch after night launch

Photographer Chris Bakley captured this stunning image of NASA's LADEE moon probe launch from the beach in Cape May Point, N.J., on Sept. 6, 2013. 

LADEE launched from Wallops Island, Va., and was visible across a wide swath of the U.S. East Coast

Credit: Chris Bakley

Engineers have fixed a technical glitch on NASA's newest robotic moon explorer, bringing the spacecraft back up to full health one day after a spectacular nighttime launch Friday that wowed spectators up and down the U.S. East Coast.

NASA's LADEE moon probe launch into space Friday night (Sept. 6) in a flawless liftoff from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. An Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur V rocket, making its debut flight, launched the lunar probe.

But just hours after the 11:27 p.m. EDT (0327 GMT) liftoff, NASA officials reported that the spacecraft's reaction wheels — which spin to position and stabilize LADEE in space without using precious thruster fuel — unexpectedly shut down.


By Saturday afternoon, the glitch had been traced to safety limits programmed into LADEE before launch to protect the reaction wheel system, NASA officials said.

Those fault protection limits caused LADEE to switch off its reaction wheels shortly after powering them up, according to a mission status update.

Engineers have since disabled the safety limits causing the glitch and taking extra care in restoring the fault-protection protocols.

Butler Hine

"Our engineers will determine the appropriate means of managing the reaction wheel fault protection program. Answers will be developed over time and will not hold up checkout activities," NASA's LADEE project manager at AMES, Butler Hine said in a statement.

"The reaction wheel issue noted soon after launched was resolved a few hours later," added NASA Ames Research Center director Pete Worden.

"The LADEE spacecraft is healthy and communicating with mission operators." NASA's Ames center developed and built the LADEE spacecraft, and is overseeing its mission operations.