Last Flight for GRAIL's Twin Spacecraft
December 21, 2012
This still image and animation shows the final flight path for NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission spacecraft, which will impact the moon on Dec. 17, 2012, around 2:28 p.m. PST. Their successful prime and extended science missions now completed, the twin GRAIL spacecraft Ebb and Flow are being sent purposefully into the moon because their low orbit and fuel state precludes further scientific operations.
The animations were created from data obtained by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/ASU
Topics:
Technology Internet, Environment, Space technology, Spaceflight, Spacecraft, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, Discovery program, Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Orbiter, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Moon, Unmanned spacecraft, Exploration of the Moon
