The following video was transmitted from a Japanese satellite named SELENE (SELenological and ENgineering Explorer), as it crash-landed into the lunar surface a couple of weeks ago.
Unfortunately, we don’t quite get to see the money shot as the satellite enters the shadow of the crater that is the planned crash site, but the foreplay is pretty impressive on its own.
(Although I’ve embedded it here, I would highly recommend that you watch the larger HD version directly on YouTube instead.)
SELENE had been studying the moon from close orbit for twenty months before its mission ended in the controlled crash we (almost) see here.
It’s like science-fiction, but its real! Science-reality? Sci-Re? Whatever it is, I like it.
