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The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is is a small space observatory that will study the moon's thin atmosphere and dust above the lunar surface.
NASA's LADEE spacecraft is scheduled for launch in early 2013.
To carry out the mission, NASA will send a robotic spacecraft into orbit around the Moon, and use instruments aboard the spacecraft to study the Moon's atmosphere and dust in the Moon's vicinity. Instruments will include a dust detector, a neutral mass spectrometer, an ultraviolet-visible spectrometer, and recently announced, a laser communications (lasercomm) terminal.
LADEE was announced during the presentation of NASA's FY09 budget in February 2008. It will be launched aboard a Minotaur V from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
