Astrobotic, the company responsible for the launch of the first private lunar lander mission in the United States, declared the mission a failure on January 9. The Peregrine Lunar Lander, carried by United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket, took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with the ambition of being the first American spacecraft to land on the Moon since the Apollo era.
Initial success was met with separation from the launch vehicle, but just hours later, Astrobotic reported malfunctions. The spacecraft’s solar panels were unable to be oriented towards the Sun for battery charging due to a propulsion problem, resulting in damage to the exterior of the lander. The company announced on Tuesday that there was “no chance of a soft landing” on the Moon.
Despite the setback, the Peregrine lander still has about 40 hours of fuel, and Astrobotic plans to operate the craft until the fuel is depleted. The company hypothesizes that a valve failure between the helium pressurant and the oxidizer during initialization caused the propulsion anomaly, leading to a rupture of the oxidizer tank.
NASA had invested over $100 million in Astrobotic for the mission, which aimed to land scientific instruments on the Moon to gather data on surface composition and radiation in the mid-latitude region. While the setback raises questions about the private sector’s role in lunar exploration, Astrobotic is determined to extract valuable data from the current mission to inform their next endeavor.
The company is gearing up for the Griffin lander mission, which will transport a NASA rover to the Moon’s south pole, scheduled for later this year. The challenges faced by Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander highlight the difficulties private companies encounter in achieving successful soft lunar landings. Other attempts, like Israel’s Beresheet lander in 2019 and Japan’s Hakuto mission in April 2023, also ended in failure.
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