LCROSS Live Updates

Recent News: NASA Bombing Moon in Search of Water.

Related Video: NASA Plans Next Journey to Moon.

Follow me (@Discovery_Space and @astroengine) and Irene (@Free_Space) on Twitter and follow the #LCROSS hashtag for mission updates. Also, follow @LCROSS_NASA for tweets direct from the robot's mouth.

UPDATES:

1:52 am PDT: Twitter buddy Dr Lucy Rogers (@DrLucyRogers) has written a really cool post about the LCROSS impact: "The Latest on the Lunar Impact."

1:28 am PDT: @LCROSS_NASA: Another 17,000km to go, just like a trip from Sydney to London #lcross

Only difference is, you don't crash into London, blasting a dust plume miles into space...

1:10 am PDT: Just a thought... despite all the excitement surrounding the impact of LCROSS into the lunar surface and all the amazing science we're going to get from it... I can't help but feel a little sad for the little robot. It's falling to its certain death in a little over 3 hours and yet its tweets remain upbeat, informative and witty. So selfless.

12:55 am PDT: @motorbikematt: "A pano from an earlier scene at the #LCROSS party @NASA_Ames http://flic.kr/p/75YkvZ"

12:30 am PDT: @LCROSS_NASA: "Where am I now? Travelin' 1.28km/s(2873mph). 20,380km from the Moon. 4 hours to go!"

12:28 am PDT: Will Gater (@willgater), just shared a really cool PDF diagram of the entire LCROSS mission (found in Times.co.uk).

11:57 pm PDT: According to a tweet from the perky LCROSS Twitter feed, the Hawaiian Mauna Kea observatories will be broadcasting the LCROSS approach to the lunar south pole live starting at 3:30am PDT. NASA TV will start broadcasting at 3:15am PDT.

6:50 pm PDT: The LCROSS Centaur separation was successfully completed, followed by a 180° flip by LCROSS so it could begin a 4 minute 5 second burn to slow the spacecraft down. LCROSS was then set up to follow the discarded Centaur rocket toward the moon. LCROSS is now 4 minutes behind the rocket.

The image to the right is an infrared view of the Centaur as it receded away from LCROSS.