The mission of a destructive impact probe ends successfully with a vehicle (or even just a passive projectile) being destroyed on impact with the surface of another world. The first destructive impact probe was Luna 2, which, along with the launcher's upper stage, impacted the Moon in 1959. Luna 2 hit the surface at 3315 m s− 1 (Blagonravov, 1968), demonstrated by the loss of the radio signal. Rangers 6–9 impacted the Moon a few years later, obtaining (in the case of 7, 8, 9) close-up images of the lunar surface prior to impact at 2620–2680 m s− 1 (e.g. Schurmeier et al., 1965; Hall, 1977). The craters made by these impacts were subsequently found in Lunar Orbiter and Apollo images. Discarded Apollo lunar module ascent stages and Saturn IVB rocket stages impacted the Moon and proved useful as artificial, well-characterised seismic sources (Latham et al., 1970, 1978).

Many years later, Lunar Prospector ended its successful mission by impacting the lunar surface at 1700 m s− 1, in an attempt to detect water ice by means of telescopic observations of the ejecta plume from Earth. No plume was seen, however, but the exercise resulted in calculations of possible H2O ejecta cloud propagation that may be applicable to future events (Goldstein et al., 2001). The lunar orbiters Hiten and SMART-1 also ended their missions by impacting the lunar surface. NASA's LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) is due to make another attempt to detect ice using the impact technique.