(12/09/1997) --- NASA's Lunar Prospector is taken out of its crate at Astrotech, a commercial payload processing facility, in Titusville, Fla. The small robotic spacecraft, to be launched for NASA on an Athena 2 rocket by Lockheed Martin, is designed to provide the first global maps of the Moon's surface compositional elements and its gravitational and magnetic fields. While at Astrotech, Lunar Prospector will be fueled with its attitude control propellant and then mated to a Trans-Lunar Injection Stage which is a solid propellant upper stage motor. The combination will next be spin tested to verify proper balance, then encapsulated into an Athena nose fairing. Then the Lunar Prospector will be transported from Astrotech to Cape Canaveral Air Station and mated to an Athena rocket. The launch of Lunar Prospector is scheduled for Jan. 5, 1998 at 8:31 p.m