The LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission launched in June with its main goal to look for frozen water reserves on the moon by literally blowing up an area at the Moon’s south pole.

A source of water on Moon could provide hydrogen for fuel, and assist in the establishment of a permanent moon base.

If bombing the moon once wasn’t enough, NASA will actually do it twice. The mission has two stages: the shepherding spacecraft and Centaur heavy impactor will separate, with the Centaur creating a debris plume that will rise above the lunar surface. The shepherding spacecraft will fly through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before impacting the lunar surface and creating a second debris plume.

The first impact takes place on Oct 9, 2009 at 4:30 a.m. US PDT (7:30 a.m. US EDT, 10:30pm AEDT) with the second 4 minutes later.

You can watch a live stream of the NASA Moon bombing on NASA TV or via theSLOOH telescope system. Twitter updates are available on the official LCROSS account.

moon bomb set to hit on 10.09.2009