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resolution studies. The orbit was altered again on 28 January
to a 15 x 45 km orbit, ending the 1 year primary mission and
beginning the extended mission. The mission ended on 31
July 1999 at 9:52:02 UT (5:52:02 EDT) when Lunar Prospector
was deliberately targeted to impact in a permanently shadowed
area of a crater near the lunar south pole. It was hoped that the
impact would liberate water vapor from the suspected ice
deposits in the crater and that the plume would be detectable
from Earth, however, no plume was observed. 

The Lunar Prospector mission was the third mission selected
by NASA for full development and construction as part of
NASA's Discovery Program. Total cost for the mission was
$62.8 million including development ($34 million), launch
vehicle (~$25 million) and operations (~$4 million). 


Launch Information:
Launch Date/Time: 1998-01-07 at 02:28:44 UTC
Launch Site/Country: Cape Canaveral, United States
Vehicle: Athena 2


Orbital Information:
Orbit: Orbiter
Central Body: Earth
Epoch start date/time: 1998.007:03:30:00 (07 Jan)
Epoch end date/time: 1998.007:12:30:00 (07 Jan)
Periapisis: 1.03093 RE
Apoapsis: 56.29 RE
Orbital Period: 216.1 h
Inclination: 29.2 degrees
Eccentricity: .96403
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