Jun 18 2009
From The Space Library
NASA successfully launched its Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite(LCROSS) aboard an Atlas-V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]] in Florida at 5:32 p.m. (EDT). Also on board, with a companion mission, was LRO, which safely separated from LCROSS 45 minutes after launch. The mission planned for the 1,290-pound (585-kilogram) LCROSS and the 5,216-pound (2,366-kilogram) Centaur upper stage was to perform approximately three long, looping polar orbits around the Earth and the Moon, before colliding separately with the Moon on 9 October 2009. NASA had tentatively targeted an impact site at the Moon’s south pole near the Cabeus region, but refused to identify the exact target until 30 days before impact, when its scientists would have had time to study the information collected by LRO, other spacecraft orbiting the Moon, and observatories on Earth.
NASA, “NASA Successfully Launches Lunar Impactor,” news release 09-143, 18 June 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jun/HQ_09-143_LCROSS_Launch_Success.html (accessed 22 July 2011).
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