LCROSS

Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)

LCROSS, in full Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, U.S. spacecraft that was deliberately crashed into the Moon on October 9, 2009, resulting in the discovery of subsurface water. LCROSS was launched on June 18, 2009, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas rocket that also carried the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a spacecraft designed to map the surface of the Moon.

LCROSS remained attached to the 2.2-ton Centaur upper stage of the Atlas rocket and flew by the Moon on June 23. It and the Centaur upper stage entered an orbit in which they completed one revolution around Earth in approximately 36 days. On October 8 the Centaur upper stage separated from LCROSS and traveled toward Cabeus, a crater at the Moon’s south pole. Since the floor of Cabeus is permanently in shadow, it was thought that water might survive there as ice just underneath the surface. Such water would be useful for future crewed lunar missions. Nearly 10 hours later the Centaur upper stage hit the Moon at a speed of 9,000 km (5,600 miles) per hour. LCROSS flew through the impact plume, analyzing its composition, and crashed on the Moon four minutes later. Subsequent analysis of the plume revealed that the lunar soil at the bottom of Cabeus was 5.6 percent water ice.