5/25/2009 LCROSS Facebook page entry on south polar impact date:
"LCROSS Lunar Impactor Mission at 7:55am May 25
We have not announced the impact time since it is heavily dependent on
launch date and also the in-flight orbit corrections the team must
execute. For a June 17-21 launch window, we know the impact will be at
the south pole. The "exact" location (which crater) will be determined
at impact minus 30 days. Updates to the impact time will be
updated ... Read Morethen as well. It is a big trajectory calculation
that moves the exact location/time around. For a nominal June 17th
launch (for one window of several that day), impact is Oct 8th, around
10:30 UTC (ish). That's about 3:30 AM PDT. The timing is optimized to
get the moon high over Hawaii. If we launch from another date or
another window within that June 17th the impact date and time of
impact changes. We are excited that these potential Oct 8-11th impact
dates (told you there was a range!) provide a visible moon to most of
the western continental US to observe the impact.
Stay tuned!
LCROSS Facebook team."
5/21/2009 NASA LRO-LCROSS Press Release on the May 21 News conference
re: June 17 launch date
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2009/09-54.html
Please note on the main NASA LCROSS page - an active launch countdown
timer is now present.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html
- Clear Skies - Kurt