Nasa's moon explorer Ladee crashes on far side of the moon

Nasa's robotic moon explorer, Ladee, is no more.

Flight controllers confirmed Friday that the orbiting spacecraft crashed into the back side of the moon as planned, just three days after surviving a full lunar eclipse, something it was never designed to do, The Guardian reported.

Researchers believe Ladee likely vaporized when it hit because of its extreme orbiting speed of 3,600 mph, possibly smacking into a mountain or side of a crater. No debris would have been left behind.

"It's bound to make a dent," project scientist Rick Elphic predicted Thursday.

By Thursday evening, the spacecraft had been skimming the lunar surface at an incredibly low altitude of 300ft. Its orbit had been lowered on purpose last week to ensure a crash by Monday following an extraordinarily successful science mission.

Ladee, short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, was launched in September from Virginia. From the outset, Nasa planned to crash the spacecraft into the back side of the moon, far from the Apollo artifacts left behind during the moonwalking days of 1969 to 1972. 

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