[meteorite-list] NASA Moon Impactor Successfully Completes Lunar Maneuver (LCROSS)

[Ron Baalke]

June 23, 2009

Ashley Edwards/Grey Hautaluoma 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1756/0668 
ashley.edwards-1 at nasa.gov, grey.hautaluoma-1 at nasa.gov 

Jonas Dino 
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 
650-207-3280 
jonas.dino at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 09-145

NASA MOON IMPACTOR SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES LUNAR MANEUVER

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing 
Satellite, or LCROSS, successfully completed its most significant 
early mission milestone Tuesday with a lunar swingby and calibration 
of its science instruments. The satellite will search for water ice 
in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon's south pole. 

With the assist of the moon's gravity, LCROSS and its attached Centaur 
booster rocket successfully entered into polar Earth orbit at 6:20 
a.m. PDT on June 23. The maneuver puts the spacecraft and Centaur on 
course for a pair of impacts near the moon's south pole on Oct. 9. 

"The successful completion of the LCROSS swingby proves the science 
instruments are functioning as expected. It is a testament to the 
hard work and dedication of the entire team" said Dan Andrews, LCROSS 
project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, 
Calif. "We are elated at the results from the maneuver and eagerly 
anticipate the impacts in early October." 

During its swing by the moon, the spacecraft's instruments were turned 
on and calibrated by scanning three sites on the lunar surface. These 
sites were the craters Mendeleev, Goddard C and Giordano Bruno. They 
were selected because they offer a variety of terrain types, 
compositions and illumination conditions. The spacecraft also scanned 
the lunar horizon to confirm its instruments are aligned in 
preparation for observing the Centaur's debris plume. 

"Each instrument returned good data that the science team will spend 
the next few weeks analyzing," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project 
scientist at Ames. "These data will ensure we are as prepared as 
possible for monitoring and interpreting data we receive during 
impact." 

LCROSS and its attached Centaur upper stage rocket are now in a long, 
looping polar orbit around Earth and the moon. Each orbit will be 
roughly perpendicular to the moon's orbit around Earth and take about 
37 days to complete. Before impact, the spacecraft and Centaur will 
make approximately three orbits. 

LCROSS and the Centaur separately will collide with the moon at 
approximately 7:30 a.m. EDT on Oct. 9, creating a pair of debris 
plumes that will be analyzed for the presence of water ice or water 
vapor, hydrocarbons and hydrated materials. The spacecraft and 
Centaur are targeted to impact the moon's south pole near the Cabeus 
region. The exact target crater will be identified 30 days before 
impact, after considering information collected by NASA's Lunar 
Reconnaissance Orbiter and observatories on Earth. 

Nine hours before impact, about 54,000 miles above the surface, LCROSS 
and the Centaur will separate. LCROSS will spin 180 degrees to turn 
its science payload toward the moon and fire thrusters to create 
distance from the Centaur. The spacecraft will observe the flash from 
the Centaur's impact and fly through the debris plume. Data will be 
collected and streamed to Earth for analysis. Four minutes later, 
LCROSS also will impact, creating a second debris plume. 

The LCROSS mission is providing mission updates on Twitter at: 

http://www.twitter.com/lcross_nasa 

For more information about NASA's LCROSS mission, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/lcross 
	
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