Astrobotic Lunar Lander Encounters Anomaly While En Route to the Moon
The US Astrobotic lunar lander, carrying NASA science experiments and human remains, encounters an unexpected issue en route to the moon, jeopardizing its historic mission
Shortly after its early Monday morning launch from Florida to the moon, the first US lunar lander in fifty years, the Peregrine lunar lander developed by Astrobotic Technology, encountered a setback. The company initially made contact with the vehicle, but the mission is now in jeopardy.
"Regrettably, an unexpected event occurred, leading to Astrobotic's inability to maintain a steady orientation facing the sun," announced the company on X at 9:37 a.m. ET. "Our team is actively addressing the situation and will share updates as we gather and analyze data."
A sun-facing position is usually essential for harnessing solar power to charge a spacecraft's batteries.
The reason for the issue was unclear, as representatives from Astrobotic did not respond to a request for more information. The lunar lander, named Peregrine after the fastest bird in the world, seemed to have completed the initial part of its journey successfully after being launched on a Vulcan Centaur rocket developed by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The first-ever flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, a new vehicle designed by ULA to replace its older rockets, was a success. The company confirmed that the rocket performed as expected, delivering the Peregrine lunar lander into a trans-lunar injection orbit. This involved a precisely timed engine burn that propelled the lander onto a path in Earth orbit, allowing it to sync up with the moon, located approximately 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away.
The Peregrine lander was expected to ignite its own onboard thrusters, potentially making up to three maneuvers to precisely navigate its path. It remains uncertain if the lander executed a successful burn.
Astrobotic announced that Peregrine has successfully established communication with NASA's Deep Space Network, activated its avionics systems, and powered on and tested the thermal, propulsion, and power controllers. Following the successful activation of its propulsion systems, Peregrine transitioned into a safe operational state.
The Peregrine lander experienced an "anomaly" after that, which is an aerospace industry term for an aspect of a mission that is abnormal or not as planned.
Astrobotic Technology, a company based in Pittsburgh, developed the Peregrine vehicle under a $108 million contract with NASA. Designed to be cost-effective, the aim was to fulfill NASA's vision of reducing the cost of lunar exploration by involving the private sector in competing for contracts. Astrobotic CEO John Thornton stated to CNN on January 2 that he sees this initial launch as a test mission.
"This approach is essentially like a 50-50 chance at scoring a goal, where the focus is on the industry as a whole succeeding rather than any single mission," Thornton explained.
Nevertheless, if the lander does not succeed, it would be a significant setback for Astrobotic, NASA, and other countries and institutions with payloads on the Peregrine lander.
If the lander is lost early in the mission, Astrobotic will not be able to test the vehicle's ability to land on the lunar surface. The planned attempt to touch down on the moon on February 23 will be impacted.
The Peregrine vehicle carries five scientific instruments from NASA and 15 other payloads from various organizations and countries. Among the commercial payloads are mementos and even human remains that paying customers had arranged to fly to the lunar surface.
