Citadel professor huge part of moon crashing mission

The eyes of Luke Sollitt and his cadet students were glued to a pair of screens showing NASA’s latest visit to the moon.

Sollitt, an assistant professor of physics at the Citadel worked among a team of scientists who developed the idea of crashing a rocket into a crater on the moon, in search of water. Despite an anticlimactic finish, Sollitt says it’s mission accomplished.

The rocket stage, and satellite smashed into the dark spot of a moon crater shortly after 7:30. But, viewers never saw the promised several mile plume of lunar dust that NASA promised…unless you watched it with one of the mission founders.

Sollitt pointed out what he felt was the impact site, even before NASA managers could be heard confirming impact.

Sollitt says the actual results of the search for water won’t be known for months.