NationStates Jolt Archive


Hitting the moon

Big Long Now
29-01-2005, 06:20
Iron Fist News Agency, Big Long Now

Today the Big Long Now Space Agency announced that they had made it to the moon robotically, but ultimately ending prematurely.

Luna Alpha took off from the Cobanika Space Center last week and successfully made it into lunar orbit three days later, for the next few days L.A. was busy taking and beaming back radar images of the lunar surface for signs of liquids on or beneath the surface. Mission officials were altering the orbit path to bring it closer to the surface when one of the engineers accidentally submitted the unfinished trajectory code, sending the probe crashing to the surface.

"He made a mistake, and mistakes are forgivable but in this case, it was worth millions of dollars, so we have relieved him from his position," said mission director Stephen Jovik told the press today. "Even though the probe was destroyed prematurely, we are labeling this as a success, since we have gained invaluable data that we will be combing over for a long time."

Luna Alpha was the first manmade satellite from Big Long Now to orbit an interplanetary object. BLNSA officials have recently been approved funding to send out L.A.'s twin, the Luna Alpha X, next year - with more safeguards.