GRAIL’s Last Views of the Moon Before Impact

As reported in an earlier story, NASA’s GRAIL mission completed its scientific objectives and was scheduled to crash on the lunar surface on December 14, 2012.

According to plan, the two GRAIL craft did crash into the lunar surface, and NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech has just released video of the mission’s final moments.

The video was taken using the GRAIL mission’s MoonKAM camera.  According to NASA, “At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was about 6 miles (10 kilometers) above the northern hemisphere of the moon’s far side, in the vicinity of the Jackson impact crater.”

Video Courtesy of JPL