NASA's moon probe blasts off during US shutdown

Washington, Oct. 8 (ANI): The politics that put a partial shutdown on the US was unable to stop NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, nicknamed LADEE, from blasting off aboard Minotaur 5 rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia, this Sunday.

The probe is on its first leg of a roundabout, month-long-journey to the moon.

The spacecraft circled Earth thrice before it came to a position for a make-or-break engine firing to slow the probe's speed so that it could be captured by the moon's gravity, Discovery News reported.

This manoeuvre could not be rescheduled for the partial shutdown to get over. (ANI)