Originally posted by connelly4245
Found a video of pictures of the fly by on youtube. not what i was expecting. :-(
Link
S+F for your work though
This was only meant to be a gravity assist fly-by which used the Moon's gravity to move the LCROSS into the proper orbit for its October impact date. The fly-by was never meant to be a close approach and/or picture taking opportunity (that's what LRO is for).
...having said that, I though it was pretty interesting to be able to watch a live video feed showing the far side of the Moon.
But the real reason for the fly-by was to get into the proper orbit. Because of yesterday's fly-by maneuver, the orbit of LCROSS is now roughly perpendicular to the ecliptic plane so it can approach the Moon from the south in October:
LCROSS orbit
[edit on 6/24/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]
