Astrobotic said the cause of the failure was likely a propulsion failure, adding that a further update would be issued once more data is acquired and analyzed.

Peregrine’s mission represents a new chapter in the commercial space industry, launching private companies into the space race and delivering to NASA and other customers.

The Pittsburgh-based company First private company to succeed in landing This is something only four countries have achieved on the moon. A Houston-based company also has a lander ready to fly and is expected to take a more direct route to the moon.

NASA provided both companies with significant funding to build and fly their own lunar landers. The space agency hopes the privately owned lander will scout the site before astronauts arrive, while also providing technical and scientific experiments for NASA and benefiting other customers. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander contract: $108 million.

During its first flight, the Peregrine lander carried five NASA instruments. Following the technical anomaly, NASA said it would learn from the situation.

“Each success and setback is an opportunity for us to learn and grow,” Joel Kearns, deputy assistant administrator for exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement Monday. “We will use these lessons to advance our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development of the Moon.”

The last time the United States launched a moon landing mission was in December 1972. Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan was the last human to set foot on the moon as mission commander, and Harrison Schmidt was the 12th astronaut to walk on the moon. , concluded an era that continued to be the pinnacle of NASA.

The space agency’s new Artemis mission, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology, aims to return astronauts to the moon’s surface within the next few years. first, Flight around the moon by four astronautsProbably by the end of the year.

Highlighting Monday’s moonshot was the long-delayed initial test flight of the Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 202-foot (61-meter) rocket is essentially an upgraded version of ULA’s highly successful flagship Atlas V, which will be phased out along with the company’s Delta IV. Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin provided his two main engines for the Vulcan.

The then-Soviet Union and the United States suspended touchdowns after a string of successful moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s. China joined the elite club in 2013, India in 2023.But I also saw it last year Landing craft from Russia and Japanese private companies crash into the moon. In 2019, an Israeli nonprofit organization's lander crashed.

Next month, SpaceX will provide lifts for the lander from Intuitive Machines.

In addition to flight experiments for NASA, Astrobotic has launched its own cargo transportation business, shipping its 6-foot-tall (1.9-meter-tall) Hayabusa lander with rock chips from Everest and toy-sized objects it catapults from Mexico. I packed everything up to my car. It will reach and cruise the moon’s surface, collecting the ashes and DNA of deceased space enthusiasts, including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.

The Navajo Nation recently asked for the launch to be postponed because of the human remains. He said it would be a “grave desecration” of the celestial bodies worshiped by Native Americans. Thornton said the December challenge was too late, but promised to work to find a “good path forward” with the Navajo Nation for future missions.

Celestis, one of the spaceflight memorial companies that purchased space for the lander, said in a statement that no single culture or religion owns the moon and should not be able to veto the mission. There will be more debris in the rocket’s upper stage, and once released from the lander, it will orbit the sun indefinitely all the way to Mars.

Freight rates for Hayabusa range from a few hundred dollars to $1.2 million per kilogram (2.2 pounds), not enough for Astrobotic to break even. But Astrobotic CEO John Thornton says that’s not the point for this first flight.

“A lot of people’s dreams and hopes rest on this,” he said.