NASA has crashed two spacecraft into the lunar south pole. The goal of the impacts was to search for hidden ice.

 

Several hundred people gathered at the museum "Newseum" in the US capital on Friday morning to watch a large screen that projected real time images of the event.

A large empty rocket hull barreled into the moon at 11:31 GMT, followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.

Screens got static and no immediate pictures of the crash or the six-mile plume of lunar dust that the mission was all about.

Still, NASA scientists were happy.

Jennifer Heldmann, coordinator of NASA's Observation campaign said, "We have images, we have video, we have graphs with squiggly lines that scientists love. So, we have a little bit of something for everyone. And I can only show you a snap shot here given time restrictions, but there's a lot more that's available."

The probe also carried four other pieces of equipment to look for ice or any form of water.

The idea is to confirm the theory that water is hidden below the barren moonscape.