When NASA sends the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to the moon late this year, your name can go with it, thanks to the efforts of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

With a quick sub-orbital virtual trip to NASA's Send Your Name to the Moon web site, you can be a part of the nation's latest lunar adventure by putting your name in orbit around the moon. Everyone who visits the Send Your Name to the Moon site and submits the requested information will be able to print a certificate and have their name entered in to a database. The contents of the database will then be transferred to a microchip that will be integrated onto the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft.

The deadline for submitting names is June 27, 2008.

"Everyone who sends their name to the moon, like I'm doing, becomes part of the next wave of lunar explorers," said Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in a press release. "The LRO mission is the first step in NASA's plans to return humans to the moon by 2020, and your name can reach there first. How cool is that?"

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