Tucked away among the colorful offices of NASA?s Earth Sciences Division, engineers are quickly and quietly preparing the first steps of America?s second “great leap” to the moon.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission ? to map the surface of the moon to within a half a meter ? is preparing its spacecraft for the final rigorous testing that will ensure it survives this winter?s launch, the temperature extremes of space and maneuvering that will put it into orbit 32 miles above the lunar surface.