Missile practice for Moon mission (BBC) {bullets to the moon!}

By Judith Burns
BBC News

Tests on a UK-led technology at the heart of a planned Moon mission have been a spectacular success, according to the experts involved in the project.

Three penetrator missiles were fired into a sand bunker in Wales, designed to mimic the lunar surface.

Professor Alan Smith, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told BBC News the results had exceeded expectations.

He is a leading figure in the Moonlite mission, which hopes to fire instruments into the Moon in 2013.

A BBC team witnessed the final day of the tests at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) test site at Pendine, near Tenby.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7438270.stm

This is your captain speaking ... please brace yourselves for a rough landing ...