NASA is planning to drop a spent rocket motor into the Cabeus crater on the moon Friday morning as part of the search to find lunar water. The motor is a leftover piece of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite that includes a “shepherding spacecraft” that will follow behind the rocket motor before it too smashes into the moon. Ouch.

It’s not that NASA hates the moon, it’s just that creating two more craters on the already pockmarked lunar surface will stir up regolith plumes that should let scientists figure out if there is water trapped below the surface.

We found a lot of details over on MSNBC, including pointers on how you can watch the event if you own a telescope.

For us non-telescope-owners, NASA TV is going to broadcast the whole thing live starting at 7:30 a.m. ET, and we’re guessing they’ll archive the footage in case you don’t get up early.

via SciFiWire