Visitors Now:
Total Visits:
Total Stories:

By Universe Today (Reporter)
Contributor profile | More stories

Story Views
Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

End of Mission: GRAIL Spacecraft Impact a Mountain on the Moon

Tuesday, December 18, 2012 1:03

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

The planned path of the GRAIL spacecrafts’ final orbit. Credit: NASA

“So long, Ebb and Flow, and we thank you,” said GRAIL project manager David Lehman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory after the twin GRAIL spacecraft completed a planned formation-flying double impact into the southern face of 2.5-kilometer- (1.5-mile-) tall mountain on a crater rim near the Moon’s north pole. Mission team members estimate the two spacecraft were traveling at a speed of 1.7 kilometers per second (3,760 mph), and likely broke apart on impact. NASA said that most of what remains of the washing machine-sized spacecraft are probably buried in shallow craters, and the size of those craters will hopefully be determined when NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is able to image the impact site in about two weeks.

NASA has honored the GRAIL team’s request to name Ebb and Flow’s impact sites after astronaut Sally Ride, who passed away earlier this year. She was America’s first woman in space and a member of the GRAIL mission team.
(…)
Read the rest of End of Mission: GRAIL Spacecraft Impact a Mountain on the Moon (487 words)