NASA moon-mapping mission to come to a crashing end

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, Dec 14: NASA plans to crash a pair of small robotic science probes into the moon next week after a successful year-long mission to learn what lies beneath the lunar surface, officials said yesterday. The twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft will make suicidal plunges on Monday into a mountain near the moon’s north pole, a site selected to avoid the chance of hitting any of the Apollo or other lunar relics. (agencies)