NASA selected Lockheed Martin‘s Atlas 5 rocket to launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission in 2008, the organizations announced July 30.

The mission which also will carry a secondary payload called Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, is scheduled to take place in the fall of 2008 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. LRO will arrive at the moon three to five days after launch and will orbit the moon for a year to gather data on future sites for future human exploration missions to the moon specifically targeted at preparing for future human exploration on the lunar surface.

NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a Launch Services contract signed in 2000.