LCROSS Flight Director's Blog
- October 2009
-
Here is the list of entries for LCROSS Flight Director's Blog based on the selected criteria.
-
Brace for Impact! A Schedule of Events for the Final Day
Oct 08, 2009 02:53:34 AM | Paul.D Tompkins
-
- Our last day in flight promises to be the most challenging and the most rewarding for the project. Our 112 days in orbit are focused entirely on the last four minutes following the Centaur impact. During your day tomorrow, I thought it might be fun for you to know what the Flight Team will be doing in lead-up to the event. Here's some late-breaking news about TCM 9, and a schedule of events for the final day.
-
-
Farewell LCROSS
Oct 07, 2009 05:02:46 PM | Paul.D Tompkins
-
- Our team has been working at full-bore for 3+ years, ultimately to achieve the impact that may expose water at the lunar south pole, but also that leads to the demise of the LCROSS spacecraft. In this post, my guest blogger Jen Heldmann, LCROSS Observation Campaign Coordinator and Science Team member, reflects on this journey, and what lies beyond the impact on October 9.
-
-
Our Centaur: Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Turned Lunar Impactor
Oct 07, 2009 04:21:16 PM | Paul.D Tompkins
-
- Delivered by the LCROSS spacecraft, our Centaur upper stage will cause the main impact plume that we'll observe to determine whether water exists on the moon. In this posting my guest Chuck Tatro, the NASA Launch Program Mission Manager for LRO and LCROSS, describes this very important component, the ideas that went into its design, and why it's the right way to look for water at the lunar south pole.
-
-
Once More Around the Earth: September 4 - October 5
Oct 05, 2009 03:29:20 PM | Paul.D Tompkins
-
- The anomaly robbed the LCROSS Flight Team of precious time to prepare for Impact. But with a healthy spacecraft, and enough propellant to do the job, our team was all too happy to prepare for the future. This post describes our final orbit around Earth, and our final preparations for Impact.
-
-
A Test of the Flight Team: The Near-Loss and Full Recovery of LCROSS
Oct 04, 2009 08:25:57 PM | Paul.D Tompkins
-
- Early in the second half of our second Earth orbit, while out of DSN contact, LCROSS experienced an anomaly that caused it to consume a large amount of its propellant. We spent the remainder of our second orbit recovering from that anomaly, and protecting against any future excessive propellant usage. LCROSS emerged healthy, but with very little margin for error in the final orbit before lunar impact.
-