As I noted in my first story on the private lunar lander mission, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander and the Celestis and Elysium memorial payloads containing human remains and DNA.
Unfortunately, it suffered a significant setback.
Just hours after launching from Florida toward the moon early Monday morning, the company announced the spacecraft was in jeopardy. The lunar lander, dubbed Peregrine, was unable to place itself in a position facing the sun, likely because of a propulsion issue, according to the company. The wayward orientation prevented the spacecraft from charging its batteries.The battery issue was later resolved, but Astrobotic was not able to correct the apparent issue with the Peregrine lander’s propulsion system.“Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant,” Astrobotic said in a mission update posted just after 1 p.m. ET. “The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture. We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.”
The third time will not be the charm for this private mission.
The Peregrine lander is the first American spacecraft bound for the surface of the moon in more than 50 years and only the third developed as a non-government commercial venture. Two previous commercial attempts, one launched by an Israeli group and the other by a Japanese company, crash landed in 2019 and 2023 respectively.”Flying to the surface of the moon and operating lunar missions is a very, very challenging business,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said before launch. “Only about half of those missions have been successful, and most of those have been funded by superpowers. … So that’s a really, really big challenge, and we recognize that. Eyes wide open.”In the event that we have a bad day somewhere along the mission, we’re going to be gathering all of the data that we received up to that point, and we’re going to learn from it … and we’re going to get smarter and we’re going to be ready for the next one.”
The first photo taken by the instruments aboard the spacecraft offers clues as to the problem with the propulsion system.
“The camera utilized is mounted atop a payload deck and shows Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) in the foreground,” Astrobotic wrote in the X post that featured the photo. “The disturbance of the MLI is the first visual clue that aligns with our telemetry data pointing to a propulsion system anomaly.”..There is some good news, however: The mission team has managed to get the lander’s battery fully charged, “and we are using Peregrine’s existing power to perform as many payload and spacecraft operations as possible,” Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic wrote in that same X post.
I hope for as much success as possible on this mission and that the next private actually lands on the Moon. It looks like I will not have to wait long, either.
Intuitive Machines Nova-C is slated to launch mid-February.
Like Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines—founded in 2013—cut its teeth as a competitor for the Google Lunar XPRIZE and then pivoted into commercial deliveries. Present plans call for Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Fla in mid-February, although an associated date for the subsequent lunar landing attempt remains undisclosed. “It is behaving beautifully, and we’re really excited and on target,” says Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines.—founded in 2013—cut its teeth as a competitor for the Google Lunar XPRIZE and then pivoted into commercial deliveries. Present plans call for Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Fla in mid-February, although an associated date for the subsequent lunar landing attempt remains undisclosed. “It is behaving beautifully, and we’re really excited and on target,” says Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines.
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