31 July 1999
Waning Gibbous, 91% lit
A burial on the Moon
Lunar Prospector was crashed into a polar crater at the end of its mission carrying an ounce of Eugene Shoemaker's ashes, in a capsule wrapped with a piece of brass foil.
Shoemaker had trained the Apollo astronauts in geology and had wanted to go himself; a medical condition ruled him out. He is the only person buried on another world. The foil carries a line from Romeo and Juliet about cutting him out in little stars.
- Date
- 31 July 1999
- Moon computed for
- 09:00 local time, UTC
- Phase
- Waning Gibbous
- Illuminated
- 91%
Source: NASA Ames Research Center, Lunar Prospector mission summary