Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched on the 18th of June 2009, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It entered lunar orbit on the 23rd of June 2009 after a four-and-a-half-day journey from Earth.
The total cost of the LRO mission is reported as $583 million. Of that amount, $504 million covered the main LRO probe and $79 million covered the companion LCROSS satellite.
LRO carries six scientific instruments and one technology demonstration: CRaTER, Diviner, LAMP, LEND, LOLA, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (with Narrow Angle and Wide Angle cameras), and the Mini-RF radar. Together they map topography, search for water ice, measure radiation, and image the surface at resolutions as fine as 0.5 meters.
LRO contributed to the water search through multiple methods. The companion mission LCROSS impacted Cabeus crater in October 2009 and preliminary results indicated water and hydroxyl. In July 2024, analysis of LRO radar data confirmed an underground cave in Mare Tranquillitatis roughly 45 metres wide and at least 80 metres long, which may hold scientific clues about subsurface water-ice deposits.
By March 2011, LRO's instruments had delivered more than 192 terabytes of data. NASA noted at that point that LRO had already collected as much data as all other planetary missions combined.
Yes. The Narrow Angle Cameras on LRO image pixels about 0.5 metres across from an altitude of roughly 50 km, making the Lunar Roving Vehicles, Lunar Module descent stages, and other equipment left by Apollo crews clearly visible in the images.