The moon is being bombed. Why is this a big deal in planetary science? The projectile will help the LCROSS detect if water is present. It would cost upwards of a million bucks a pound to ship water and land it safely on the moon's surface. Same for the by products of water, hydrogen and oxygen, the latter is mighty useful for visiting earth critter and together they make a handy rocket fuel.
Even the moon is celebrating Obama's Nobel Win!
NASA live impact site.
7:32 Centaur Impact into Cabeus.
6:42 AM EDT
unar Impact Locations
Centaur: latitude=84.674 S, longitude=311.302 E Spacecraft: latitude=84.731 S, longitude=310.522 E
Lunar Impact Times
Centaur: 4:31:20 a.m. PDT
Spacecraft: 4:35:36 a.m. PDT
The mission operations team has initiated power-up of the LCROSS science payload and is evaluating the health of the spacecraft instruments. Spacecraft data being transmitted to LCROSS mission control at NASA Ames at 1.5 Mbps via the Goldstone Deep Space Network Facility in California. Spacecraft and science instrument data are relayed in real-time.