CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s robotic moon explorer, LADEE, is no more. Flight controllers confirmed that the orbiting spacecraft crashed into the back side of the moon Friday as planned, avoiding the precious historic artifacts left behind by moonwalkers.
LADEE’s annihilation occurred three days after it survived a full lunar eclipse, something it was never designed to do.
Researchers think LADEE likely vaporized when it hit because of its extreme orbiting speed of 3,600 mph, possibly smacking into a mountain or the side of a crater. No debris would have been left.
LADEE — short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer — was launched in September from Virginia. From the outset, NASA planned to crash the spacecraft. LADEE completed its primary 100-day science mission last month.
