This collection of Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) records, accumulated by various team members, primarily contains material related to the mission's outreach efforts. Included are digital photographs, fact sheets, booklets, technical papers, briefings, presentations, video footage, social media campaign records, awards, posters, ephemera, objects, and memorabilia.

On June 18, 2009, NASA launched the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS, shepherding spacecraft) as a secondary payload to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas V 401 rocket on a mission to study Earth's moon. LCROSS was designed to confirm the presence and nature of water ice on the moon, and to study the composition of lunar regolith by using the launch vehicle's upper stage as a kinetic impactor and its shepherding spacecraft as a data collector. The impact would dislodge lunar material at the bottom of a permanently shadowed crater near the moon's south pole and elevate it high into the sunlight, thus enabling the instruments aboard the spacecraft to record its characteristics. The main task of the LRO mission, which is still active, was to map the moon and characterize future landing sites. Both missions achieved their primary objectives. LCROSS detected water in the moon's Cabeus crater, and LRO returned nearly 200 terabytes of images and high-resolution maps of the lunar surface, and continues to transmit altimeter measurements back to Earth.

Volume: 1,145 digital objects (40.9 gigabytes) and 17 cubic feet of analog material

Number of containers: 10

Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government material, researcher must contact the original creator.

Collection is open for research. Access to a portion of the collection is subject to restrictions.