Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) preparations. Here, the LRO is on a testing platform in a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, USA. The LRO will stay in lunar orbit for at least one Earth year, mapping the surface, surveying resources and identifying possible landing sites for manned missions. The LRO was launched on 18th June 2009 and entered lunar orbit on 23rd June 2009. For a view of all seven of the science instruments it carried, see image C005/0935.