* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission

Blobrana · L

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Sees GRAIL's Explosive Farewell

Many spacecraft just fade away, drifting silently through space after their mission is over, but not GRAIL. NASA's twin GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) spacecraft went out in a blaze of glory on Dec. 17, 2012, when they were intentionally crashed into a mountain near the moon's north pole.
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Blobrana · L

GRAIL-B

Blobrana · L

RE: Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission

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NASA's latest Moon mission ends with two bangs

If Ebb and Flow do not sound like the sorts of names that scientists at NASA would give to their space probes, that is because they are not. The two probes started off as "GRAIL A" and "GRAIL B", but were renamed by a class of schoolchildren in Bozeman, Montana, who thus won a competition run by America's space agency to give the craft more resonant monikers than the original.
Sadly, Ebb and Flow are no more. Ebb expired at 22:28:51 Greenwich Mean Time on December 17th and Flow at 22:29:21.
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Blobrana · L

NASA Grail Twins Make Impact with Moon

Spoiler

The lunar-orbiting twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission made impact on an unnamed mountain on the moon Monday, Dec. 17, 2012. The spacecraft were purposely sent into the moon because after successful prime and extended science missions, their low orbit and low fuel levels preclude further scientific operations. The mission has helped scientists learn about the moon's internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail.

Blobrana · L

NASA's GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honour of the late astronaut Sally K. Ride, who was America's first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission team.
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NASA GRAIL Twins Complete Their Moon Impact

Update: Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have received confirmation that the twin GRAIL spacecraft have, as planned, completed their impact into the moon.