Some spacecraft have all the luck. The Mars Curiosity rover gets to truck around on a foreign planet on an ongoing mission. Kepler (though crippled) keeps flying about in space, being responsible for cool discoveries. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, better known as LADEE, however, reached its expiration date as of Thursday.
LADEE’s $280 million mission didn’t last long. It took off from the warm embrace of Earth in early September of last year. It went in search of answers to a strange glow on the moon’s horizon, as reported by astronauts from the Apollo 17 mission.
The intentionally doomed spacecraft did its job by gathering detailed data on the lunar atmosphere’s composition. Scientists will be poring over the information to try to determine if the mystery glow was caused in part by lunar dust.
The craft was never intended to be out there long-term. When it hit the lunar surface, it was estimated to be traveling at 3,600 mph.