Lunar Flyby - NASA's LCROSS - LIVE video 23 June 09

LUNAR FLYBY: Tomorrow morning, NASA's LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) spacecraft will fly by the Moon and send pictures back to Earth from only 9000 km above the lunar surface. The purpose of the maneuver is to put LCROSS in an elongated Earth orbit and position it for impact at the lunar south pole later this year. Live video streaming of the flyby begins at approximately 5:20 AM PDT on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.

Originally posted by argentus
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Dare we even hope there is something "they" are going to show us? Something wonderful?


yes, we DARE!

Originally posted by argentus
Dare we even hope there is something "they" are going to show us? Something wonderful?

Ok I'm truly obsessed now - I'm actually begging for footage of the moon on a forum - oh why did I ever take that red pill?

The LCROSS spacecraft and its spent second stage Centaur rocket will make multiple maneuvers to pinpoint its instruments to the moon. The large yellow frame partially hidden behind the moon represents the Field of View of the visible light camera whereas the narrow yellow beam represents the Field of View of the spectrometers. During the first 30 minutes of the coverage, the spacecraft will stare at three targets on the lunar surface for 5 minutes each, with short slews in between.

The spacecraft will be closer to the moon at the beginning than at the end of that half hour. During the latter 30 minutes, the spacecraft will do limb crossings of the moon. The first half hour will be most interesting for the camera view. The latter 30 minutes will only show very intermittent snapshots. The real-time, telemetry-based animation will remain up-to-date, although things do move slowly.