orbiter

October’s supermoon will be slightly closer than September’s, according to Noah Petro, a lunar reconnaissance orbiter project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Using information from a scientist, an earlier version of this spacecraft misstated which orbiters around Mars were affected by a solar storm.

On Sunday, the lander component of the mission will separate from the orbiter and attempt to land on the side of the Moon that faces permanently away from Earth.

As a follow-on to KPLO, there could be another lunar orbiter.

The complex choreography of this mission, which involves a rover, a lander, a rocket, an orbiter and the coordination of two space agencies, is unprecedented.