Devendra Kumar
Astrobotic Technology’s ambitious lunar lander mission came to a disappointing end as it made an uncontrolled plunge into the South Pacific Ocean, officials confirmed. The spacecraft, named Peregrine, was lost in contact and tracking just 10 days after its launch from Florida, and subsequently broke apart during its final moments, according to a statement from US Space Command. The mission’s failure was attributed to a fuel leak shortly after lift-off, which scuppered any chance of a successful Moon touchdown.
Despite being crippled, the spacecraft managed to make it all the way out to the Moon’s orbit, over 240,000 miles away, before performing a U-turn and heading back towards Earth. Engineers suspect that a stuck valve in the propellant system caused a tank to rupture, leading to the loss of valuable fuel and ultimately, the mission’s demise. “We were coming from the highest high of the perfect launch and came down to a lowest low,” said Astrobotic’s CEO, John Thornton, reflecting on the devastating turn of events.
The incident marked the first US lunar lander mission in over half a century, and the second in a series of commercial lunar lander missions backed by NASA. The space agency had paid millions of dollars to Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, another US company, to fly its experiments to the Moon as part of a program aimed at commercialising lunar deliveries before astronauts return to the lunar surface.
The failed mission did yield some positive results, however. Despite being crippled, flight controllers were able to turn on some experiments and collect data, including those from NASA and 70 space enthusiasts who had their ashes and DNA onboard. The company is already working on an even bigger lunar lander that will carry NASA’s Viper rover to the Moon in a year.
In related news, a Japanese lunar lander touched down on the Moon just hours before Astrobotic’s failed mission, but was unable to generate crucial solar power. The US, Russia, China, and India have all successfully landed spacecraft on the Moon in the past, with the US being the only country to have landed astronauts on the lunar surface.