An unmanned rocket carrying a NASA probe blasts off from the eastern coast of the U.S. on a mission to the moon.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer spacecraft, known as LADEE, is designed to search for dust rising from the moon's surface.

It will also probe a pocket of thin gases surrounding the moon. The tenuous atmosphere contains argon, helium, sodium and potassium among its elements.

And scientists hope it may hold clues about how water came to be trapped inside craters on the moon's frozen poles.

The $280 million mission is expected to last about six months.