Barnstorming Over The Moon

After its successful launch, LCROSS is now on its way to the moon. Approximately five days after launch, the spacecraft will perform a lunar swingby to enter into an elongated polar Earth orbit to position LCROSS for impact on the lunar south pole (see mission overview video). Shortly after periselene, the time of closest approach to the lunar surface, the LCROSS science payload will be switched on for the duration of one hour for calibration of its cameras and spectrometers. LCROSS lunar swingby video stream coverage will begin approximately 5:10 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, June 23, 2009. First video data from the LCROSS spacecraft will come in at 5:20 a.m. This video shows a sped up animation of the entire 1-hour swingby coverage. Click on image to play.

After its successful launch, LCROSS is now on its way to the moon. Approximately five days after launch, the spacecraft will perform a lunar swingby to enter into an elongated polar Earth orbit to position LCROSS for impact on the lunar south pole (see mission overview video). Shortly after periselene, the time of closest approach to the lunar surface, the LCROSS science payload will be switched on for the duration of one hour for calibration of its cameras and spectrometers. LCROSS lunar swingby video stream coverage will begin approximately 5:10 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, June 23, 2009. First video data from the LCROSS spacecraft will come in at 5:20 a.m. This video shows a sped up animation of the entire 1-hour swingby coverage. Click on image to play.