astrobotic‘s first lunar module is ready for launch.
The company announced Tuesday that the lander, called Peregrine, has completed final inspection and refueling after mating with United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket last month. All that remains is the January 8th launch — and then, of course, the historic moon landing.
“If you’ve followed the lunar industry, you know that landing on the moon is incredibly difficult,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a statement. . “That being said, our team has continually exceeded expectations and demonstrated incredible ingenuity during flight reviews, spacecraft testing, and major hardware integration.”
“We are ready for launch and landing.”
The Peregrine lander, which is approximately 2 meters tall, will carry 20 payloads for government and commercial customers. The lander has a payload of 90 kg and will operate for approximately 192 hours after landing on the moon. During that time, it provides power and communications to the payload. According to Astrobotic’s payload user guide on his website, the company charges about $1.2 million per kilogram of mass delivered to the lunar surface.
Astrobotic is performing this mission as part of a $79.5 million contract from NASA under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The company also won her second CLPS contract for the larger Griffin lander. The mission is scheduled to launch at the end of 2024.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic is one of the few commercial companies betting on the growing market for lunar payload delivery services. Other companies include Intuitive Machines, which aims to launch its first lander on January 12, days after Peregrine, Firefly Aerospace, and the Japanese company whose moon launch attempt failed earlier this year. Includes ispace etc.
After Peregrine lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the spacecraft will perform a series of burns to position it for landing on the moon’s surface on February 23.
Astrobotic isn’t the only company with a lot at stake in the January 8 launch. This mission also marks the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. The rocket was hit by delays that postponed its debut for years. . ULA aims to launch several Vulcan flights next year and will ultimately need to sign a multibillion-dollar 38-vehicle launch deal with Amazon for its Project Kuiper satellite broadband constellation.
Astrobotic and ULA originally targeted a Dec. 24 launch date, but it was later postponed to give ULA time to complete a wet dress rehearsal. According to ULA, the wet dress was finally completed on December 14th.
Source: techcrunch.com
