Status: Terminated
Launch Date: January 25, 1994
Mission Summary: Clementine was a joint project between the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and NASA. It was designed to make scientific observations of the Moon and of a near-Earth asteroid called 1620 Geographos while testing new sensors and spacecraft components for space-worthiness. Lunar insertion was achieved on February 21, 1994, and lunar mapping proceeded for the next two months. After leaving lunar orbit, a foul-up in one of the on-board computers caused a motor to fire until all its fuel was exhausted, sending the spacecraft into an uncontrollable 80 RPM spin. Clementine was unable to continue on to Geographos, but continued to test the other onboard components successfully for the remainder of the mission.
Accomplishments: Assesed the surface mineralogy of the Moon, and obtained lunar altimetry from 60N to 60S latitude.
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