The Astrogator’s Guild

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/lcross-centaur-separation/

Live audio from the control Loop is still active.

About 7 Re until impact.

Closing in..

LCROSS approaches the Lunar South Pole as the Earth looks on…

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is preparing for impact with the Lunar south pole at approximately 4:30 PDT on Friday, Oct. 9.

Check out both: NASA LCROSS Mission Page

And

SpaceFlight Now LCROSS page

Along with Paul Tompkin’s blog here: Paul Tompkin’s Blog

Paul’s blog is an outstanding read. Check it out.

Astrogator High Priest John Carrico is busy supporting LCROSS at the Ames Mission Control Center. He is supporting fellow Astrogator Guild members Steve Cooley of GSFC and Ken Galal of ARC. Together they are flying a trajectory originally created by Guild member Richard Malmstrom of NGC.

STK/Astrogator is being used extensively on LCROSS for mission and maneuver planning.

Today IBEX got within 100,000 km of the Moon at apogee. The distance was roughly 93,000 km and periselene was at 5 Nov 2008 20:55:04 UTC.

I would like to take this opportunity to honor my friend and mentor Chauncey W. Uphoff (1940-2004) who taught me most of what I know and without whom I would not be doing what I’m doing today.

Cheers my friend, I know where you were at 20:55:04 UTC. “Riding the spacecraft”.