Photos: NASA's LADEE Moon Dust Mission In Pictures

LADEE Above Lunar Sunset Artist's Concept

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft is orbiting the moon to study its strange and tenuous atmosphere like never before. The spacecraft launched in September 2013 and flies close to the moon to see its dust and atmosphere. See photos from the LADEE mission in this SPACE.com gallery. HERE: Artist’s concept of NASA's LADEE spacecraft in orbit above the moon as dust scatters light during the lunar sunset.

LADEE Star Tracker Images of Lunar Terrain #1

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory successfully downlinked images of the moon and stars taken by onboard camera systems, known as star trackers. The image shown here was acquired on Feb. 8, 2014. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here]

LADEE Star Tracker Images of Lunar Terrain #2

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory successfully downlinked images of the moon and stars taken by onboard camera systems, known as star trackers. The image shown here was acquired on Feb. 8, 2014. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here]

LADEE Star Tracker Images of Lunar Terrain #3

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory successfully downlinked images of the moon and stars taken by onboard camera systems, known as star trackers. The image shown here was acquired on Feb. 8, 2014. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here]

LADEE Star Tracker Images of Lunar Terrain #4

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory successfully downlinked images of the moon and stars taken by onboard camera systems, known as star trackers. The image shown here was acquired on Feb. 8, 2014. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here]

LADEE Star Tracker Images of Lunar Terrain #5

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory successfully downlinked images of the moon and stars taken by onboard camera systems, known as star trackers. The image shown here was acquired on Feb. 8, 2014. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here]

LRO Image of LADEE (Geometrically Corrected)

This NASA photo of the LADEE moon orbiter as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter identifies key parts of the LADEE spacecraft (geometrically corrected). Image released Jan. 29, 2014. [Read the Full Story Here]

NASA's LRO Snaps a Picture of NASA's LADEE Spacecraft

NASA's LADEE moon dust probe (circled) is photographed by the agency's powerful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in this image released on Jan. 29, 2014. The image, taken on Jan. 14, shows LADEE from a distance of 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) away as the two spacecraft passed each other as they orbited the moon. Both spacecraft are orbiting the moon with velocities near 3,600 mph (1,600 meters per second), so timing and pointing of LRO must be nearly perfect to capture LADEE in an LROC image. [Read the Full Story Here]

LRO Image of LADEE with Computer-Generated Image

This NASA graphic shows an artist's view of NASA's LADEE moon dust probe overlaid on a photo of the actual spacecraft captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (geometrically corrected). Image released Jan. 29, 2014. [Read the Full Story Here]

Close-Up of LRO Image of LADEE

This subsection of the LRO image, expanded four times, shows the smeared view of LADEE. [Read the Full Story Here]

LRO Image of LADEE (Unlabeled)

NASA's powerful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of the agency's LADEE lunar dust probe, about 5.6 miles beneath it, at 8:11 p.m. EST on Jan. 14, 2014. [Read the Full Story Here]