NASA probe hits moon
By The Associated Press
This article was published October 9, 2009 at 11:09 a.m.
PHOTO BY NASA
This image provided by NASA shows an image taken shortly after the Centaur rocket impacted the moon taken from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite Friday morning Oct. 9, 2009.
WASHINGTON — NASA smacked two spacecraft into the lunar south pole Friday morning in a search for hidden ice.
Instruments confirmed that a large empty rocket hull barreled into the moon at 7:31 a.m., followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.
But initial photos show that the moon didn’t give the reaction to the double jabs that NASA expected.
And the public definitely didn’t get the live explosive views they may have anticipated from the mission called LCROSS, short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.
Screens got fuzz and no immediate pictures of the crash or the six-mile plume of lunar dust that the mission was supposed to kick up for scientists to study.
However, NASA officials touted loads of data from the probe and telescopes around the world and in orbit. But the crash photos and videos they offered at a morning news conference were few and showed little more than a fuzzy white flash.
Still, NASA scientists were happy.
“This is so cool,” said Jennifer Heldmann, coordinator for NASA’s observation campaign. “We’re thrilled.”
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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