Gallery: NASA takes first small step back to moon

Last week, NASA put man's return to the moon in motion as it loaded the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter into a truck to be taken from Goddard Space Center Greenbelt, Maryland to Cape Kennedy, Florida where it will be hurled into lunar orbit on April 24.

The LRO is scheduled to spend a year examining and mapping the lunar surface for possible treasures and landing sites for future astronauts. It will also release a probe called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) that will crash into the moon in search of water ice. Then the LRO will devote its next (and probably last) two years to science.

Photo credits: NASA