Twin impacts occurred at 11:31 UTC on October 9th, striking the crater Cabeus. At a press briefing today at 9am at PST NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, preliminary data was unveiled regarding the details contained in massive amounts of data collected by the spacecraft:

“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water.”

NASA indicates that presence of water may not be the extent of the moon’s secrets:

“The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich,” Colaprete said. “Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years.”

NASA says water found in moon crater is a post from: The Inquisitr

Shuttle Landing Schedule

With Friday’s return off, the shuttle landing schedule now shifts to Saturday. Atlantis will have four opportunities to land then, both at Kennedy and at California’s Edwards Air Force Base. The first possibility comes at 9:16 a.m. ET at Kennedy.

The space shuttle is wrapping up an 11-day mission repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. If need be, Atlantis has enough resources to remain in space through Monday.

Shuttle Landing Live Webcast

The following is a live Webcast from NASA TV about the shuttle landing and other space-related news. Click the play button to begin the stream.

LIVE WEBCAST: Shuttle Landing Delayed Due to Weather is a post from: The Inquisitr

Shuttle Hydrogen Leak

The shuttle was originally set to launch at 9:20 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The weather was good and everything looked to be a go until engineers saw explosive hydrogen gas coming out of the main fuel tank. Such a leak could have potentially sparked an explosion had the shuttle lifted off as planned.

Shuttle Timeline Now

If NASA is able to find the source of the leak and repair it, Discovery will lift off at 6:43 p.m. Sunday. The launch could likely be pushed back to Monday or Tuesday, however. If Discovery is not ready to leave by Tuesday, the mission will have to be delayed until April 7 due to a Russian Soyuz capsule launch already scheduled.

NASA officials say the space shuttle Discovery’s mission may be cut short because of the timing changes. If a Sunday launch occurs, the mission will last 11 days instead of 14. At least one of the planned four spacewalks is expected to be cancelled as well. By Monday, the trip will be cut down to 10 days with only one to two walks, and for Tuesday, the mission will be shortened to nine days with a single spacewalk.

You can read more about the plans for the mission and see a live stream of NASA’s latest efforts at the Kennedy Space Center at our Shuttle Launch Live 2009 page.

Shuttle Launch Delay: What Happened and What’s Next is a post from: The Inquisitr