After more than a week in space, the doomed lunar lander met a violent end Thursday as it burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, ending its mission.
A private spacecraft named Peregrine was designed to travel to the moon and settle on its surface. However, shortly after launching into orbit on January 8, the lander suffered a severe propellant leak, forcing operators to abort the entire mission.
Astrobotic Technology, the Pittsburgh-based company that developed the lander, said Thursday that the limp spacecraft safely burned up in Earth’s atmosphere in a remote stretch of the South Pacific Ocean at about 4:04 p.m. ET. announced.
in Updates posted on XThe company confirmed it had lost contact with the spacecraft just before 4 p.m. ET, suggesting the lander had re-entered the atmosphere, but officials said they were “waiting for independent confirmation from a government agency.” ” he added.
An early failure left the Peregrine lander with no means of reaching the moon. Astrobotic’s team fought for nine days to save the spacecraft and its onboard equipment and extend the remainder of the mission.
Engineers were able to stabilize the spacecraft, but Astrobotic said last week it would not be possible to attempt a controlled landing on the moon.
“We applaud @Astrobotic’s perseverance,” NASA announced Tuesday. Statement posted on X.
The Peregrine mission attracted attention because it was the first American lunar lander launched into space in more than 50 years. If successful, Peregrine would also have become the first commercially developed spacecraft to land on the moon.
Besides NASA, the former Soviet Union, China, and India are the only countries to have successfully made a controlled landing, or “soft landing,” on the moon’s surface. Japan aims to join that elite club on Friday when it attempts to land its Smart Lander for Lunar Exploration (SLIM).
Peregrine’s mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Module Services Program, which was established to encourage private companies to develop new lunar landers and ultimately help NASA bring cargo and scientific equipment to the lunar surface. You can now hire this lander for transport.
Another Houston-based company, Intuitive Machines, plans to launch its own commercially developed lander next month as part of the same NASA effort.
The Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program is part of the agency’s Artemis program, with the goal of returning astronauts to the Moon over the next few years, eventually establishing regular flights to the Moon, and building a lunar base camp. It is said that NASA recently announced the postponement of two upcoming Artemis missions, pushing back a lunar circumnavigation flight that was scheduled to launch later this year to 2025 and pushing back Artemis’s first landing attempt to next year.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
