January 31, 2011 - How Far the Moon?

Published in cooperation with The Planetary Society

Spend the year in space, one week at a time

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May 7, 2012 - Getting a Grip on INTELSAT

April 30, 2012 - Dust in the Wind

April 23, 2012 - Celebrate Astronomy Day

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April 9, 2012 - Mercury’s Marvelous Morphology

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March 26, 2012 - Hubble Bubble

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March 12, 2012 - Southern Lights on Saturn

March 5, 2012 - A New Star in Town

February 27, 2012 - Hubble Upgrade

February 20, 2012 - Sideways Supernova

February 13, 2012 - Auroras Gone Wild

February 6, 2012 - Hubble Telescope Tune-Up

January 30, 2012 - Lunar Orbiter Liftoff

January 23, 2012 - Magellan Turns up the Stereo

January 16, 2012 - Southern Sibling Sees Stars

January 9, 2012 - Hitching a Ride Home

January 2, 2012 - Transforming the Space Frontier

December 26, 2011 - These Laws Can't Be Broken

December 19, 2011 - Long and Winding Road

December 12, 2011 - Blast from the Past

December 5, 2011 - It’s Just Like Folding a Map

November 28, 2011 - A Warmer, Wetter Mars

November 21, 2011 - Spy in the Sky

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The Week in Space

January 31 - February 6, 2011

How Far the Moon? Launched forty years ago this week, Apollo 14 became the third mission to land astronauts on the Moon. While Stuart Roosa orbited the Moon in the Command Module Kitty Hawk, Alan Shepard (above) and Edgar Mitchell descended to the surface in the Lunar Module Antares. One important piece of equipment they deployed was the Laser Ranging Retro Reflector (LR3), a grid of 100 reflecting cubes that became a target for scientists on Earth, who bounced powerful laser beams off its reflective surface. By measuring the time it takes the laser beam to make the round trip, scientists can calculate the distance to the Moon to an accuracy of mere inches. Similar LR3s were left by the Apollo 11 and 15 astronauts, and they represent the only Apollo experiments that are still in use today.

Image credit: NASA