GRAIL spacecraft crash into the Moon
Posted: Tue, Dec 18, 2012, 7:27 AM ET (1227 GMT)
NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft crashed into a mountain on the Moon Monday afternoon, completing their nearly year-long mission there as planned. The two spacecraft, dubbed "Ebb" and "Flow", crashed into a mountain near the crater Goldschmidt in the Moon's north polar regions. Ebb crashed into the mountain at 5:28:51 pm EST (2228:51 GMT) and Flow crashed nearby 30 seconds later. NASA announced the impact sites would be named after Sally Ride, the first American woman in space who passed away earlier this year; she led the development of cameras on the spacecraft used exclusively for educational purposes. The two spacecraft entered orbit around the Moon at the beginning of the year to map the Moon's gravity field, work that has created the most precise gravity map to date of the body and, in turn, giving scientists insights into its interior structure.
NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft crashed into a mountain on the Moon Monday afternoon, completing their nearly year-long mission there as planned. The two spacecraft, dubbed "Ebb" and "Flow", crashed into a mountain near the crater Goldschmidt in the Moon's north polar regions. Ebb crashed into the mountain at 5:28:51 pm EST (2228:51 GMT) and Flow crashed nearby 30 seconds later. NASA announced the impact sites would be named after Sally Ride, the first American woman in space who passed away earlier this year; she led the development of cameras on the spacecraft used exclusively for educational purposes. The two spacecraft entered orbit around the Moon at the beginning of the year to map the Moon's gravity field, work that has created the most precise gravity map to date of the body and, in turn, giving scientists insights into its interior structure.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Gilmour Space postpones first launch after payload fairing mishap
Posted: Sun, May 18 9:22 AM ET (1322 GMT) Malfunctioning sensors and lighting conditions blamed for IM-2 lunar landing tip-over
Posted: Sun, May 18 9:15 AM ET (1315 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, May 18
Space physicist becomes RAS President-Elect
Royal Astronomical Society — 7:54 pm ET (2354 GMT) Gilat Expands and Adds to its ESA Antenna Portfolio with a Successful Test Flight of ESR-2030Ku on Eutelsat OneWeb Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Network
GlobeNewswire — 7:54 pm ET (2354 GMT) NASA's Webb Reveals New Details, Mysteries in Jupiter's Aurora
STScI — 7:53 pm ET (2353 GMT) Ovzon receives renewal from European customer of 5.7 MUSD
Ovzon — 7:51 pm ET (2351 GMT) New lab could help space industry dodge a bullet
Univ. of Glasgow — 7:50 pm ET (2350 GMT) |
