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Get ready for Super Moon 2012 Saturday with 30% more light

Last updated Friday, May 4, 2012 - 3:28pm

According to NASA's calculations, Saturday night is when the moon will hit your eye like a big pizza pie, to paraphrase Dean Martin. It's "super moon" time.

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Joseph Gutheinz, a retired NASA investigator and self-appointed moon rock hunter, stands before the lunar samples vault at Space Center Houston. (James Nielsen, Houston Chronicle / February 8, 2012)

Finding lost moon rocks is his mission

Molly Hennessy-Fiske Los Angeles Times

Last updated Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - 4:09pm

HOUSTON -- Alaska's moon rocks disappeared on Sept. 6, 1973.

A fire set by an arsonist had torn through the state transportation museum in Anchorage, where the four rocks had been on display.

The fragments, each smaller than a pea, were among 48 pounds of lunar material retrieved four years earlier by astronauts aboard Apollo 11. President Richard Nixon gave samples to each state to celebrate man's first walk on the moon.

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This framegrab image from NASA-TV shows the twin GRAIL satellites sitting on launch pad 37-A at the 15-minute hold mark atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket Thursday Sept. 8, 2011. NASA is sending the probes on a long, roundabout trip to the moon. The spacecraft will orbit the moon, chasing one another in circles so researchers can measure the gap and the gravity below. It will be the first lunar mission devoted to studying the insides of the moon. By measuring the entire gravity field of the moon, scientists hope to learn what the moon is made of all the way to its core. (AP Photo/NASA)

Wind delays NASA launch of twin moon spacecraft

Marcia Dunn The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, September 8, 2011 - 10:05am

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — High wind forced NASA on Thursday to delay the launch of twin spacecraft destined for the moon, the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity.

NASA will try again Friday, despite another poor weather forecast: 60 percent no-go. Launch time is 8:33 a.m. The space agency has just two single-second launch windows every day.

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NASA to get new look at the moon from two vantage points

Scott Gold Los Angeles Times

Last updated Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 3:36pm

It has been described as a cosmic ballet -- two spaceships in a delicate, silent dance 230,000 miles from Earth, correcting their course in tandem with air thrusts softer than a human breath, their instruments so fine-tuned they can detect a shift in gravity that pulls them no farther than the width of a strand of hair.

As soon as Thursday, NASA expects to launch its Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Shortly after launch, two spacecraft will peel away from NASA's rocket for a meandering journey to the moon. GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B are scheduled to arrive on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, respectively, then spend three months making 12 polar orbits of the moon each day.

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Alaska fishing boat captain fights to keep moon rock

Mike Carter The Seattle Times

Last updated Monday, July 18, 2011 - 10:42pm

SEATTLE — Coleman Anderson wants to keep his little piece of the moon. Whether he does will depend on the outcome of an unusual lawsuit playing out in an Alaska court.

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NASA sting leads to arrest of woman trying to sell moon rock

Los Angeles Times, Phil Willon

Last updated Friday, May 20, 2011 - 1:51pm

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A woman claiming to sell a moon rock was arrested in Lake Elsinore in Riverside County on Thursday morning as part of an undercover sting by NASA investigators aided by local police.

The investigation, which spanned several months, led to a covert meeting in a Lake Elsinore restaurant where undercover officials from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration agreed to buy the rock for $1.7 million, according to a report by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

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