LCROSS Crashes into Moon

NASA's LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), which was on a mission to find water ice, crashed into the Moon on Friday, October 9, 2009.

LCROSS traveled 5.6 million miles on its mission to look for water ice on the moon, until finally reaching Cabeus Crater near the lunar south pole.

It was launched on June 18 along with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

LCROSS and its Centaur upper stage rocket separated above the Moon's surface on Thursday, at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT.

The Centaur rocket crashed into the Moon's service just after 4:31 a.m. on Oct. 9 LCROSS impacted the surface about 5 minutes later.

The impact of the Centaur rocket caused a crater of over 60 feet in diameter was formed.

Officials at NASA say that spectrometers recorded a flash on impact. However, observers on Earth did not see an obvious plume of debris.

Scientists at NASA will analyze data from spectrometers to look for chemical compounds in the plume of debris from the impact.

Astronomers at Boston University have already observed a cloud of sodium gas erupting from the lunar surface as a result of the impact.

Some scientists are hoping that large stores of ice will be found near the Moon's north and south poles. If there is frozen water on the Moon, it could be used for a Moon base or for missions to deep space.