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Pat Duggins
Pat Duggins
Senior News Analyst
pduggins@wmfe.org


June 18, 2009-- LCROSS and its booster rocket are both supposed to crash land on the Moon. NASA wants to create two plumes of lunar dust to see if there's water ice hidden in craters. The blasts may be visible from Earth.

It's not the first time man made objects have struck the lunar surface. Once the Apollo astronauts finished each moon landing, they blasted off and linked up with their Command Module "mother ships" to return to Earth. After that, the crews didn't need the lunar modules anymore, so the empty capsules were jettisoned and sent to crash on the moon. The only exception was Apollo 13's "Aquarius" LEM which burned up after the crew used it as a lifeboat to get back after their Command Module suffered an explosion. 

 

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