The cameras at Mission Control showed the engineers at their consoles, and a video screen in front of them kept flashing images of the approaching lunar surface, each closer than the previous one. The last image was half-painted on the screen when suddenly the picture went blank with snow, and the engineers all jumped to their feet and began to applaud. Sitting on the couch at home, I automatically and involuntarily did the same.

A few weeks later, the New Yorker ran a cartoon showing a group of extraterrestrials in a briefing room looking at a screen on which there was a terrified suburban earthling pushing a lawnmower (as seen from above) and looking up at the sky in complete panic. The boss alien deadpanned "...and this was the last image returned by the probe just prior to impact".