A privately owned US lunar lander that leaked fuel during its journey is now headed towards Earth and will likely burn up in the atmosphere, the company said on Saturday.
Astrobotic has been posting regular updates on the status of the Peregrine lander since the beginning of its fateful journey, which began when it took off on January 8 on a brand new Vulcan rocket built by United Launch Alliance.
Shortly after breaking away from the rocket, the spaceship experienced an onboard explosion and it quickly became clear that it would not make a soft landing on the moon due to the amount of propellant it lost – although the Astrobotic team managed scientific experiments to give an impetus. which they transported for NASA and other space agencies, and collect spaceflight data.
“Our latest assessment now shows that the spacecraft is headed toward Earth, where it will likely burn up in Earth's atmosphere,” the Pittsburgh-based company wrote on X.
“The team is currently assessing options and we will update as soon as we are able.”
The box-shaped robot has now been in space for more than five days and is currently 390,000 kilometers from our planet, according to Astrobotic.
Space observers have been closely following Peregrine's trajectory, and many had hoped it could still make a 'hard landing' on the moon, as other failed landers have done before – although it's now clear that even that limited target won't happen. are being reached.
In addition to scientific hardware, the spaceship carries cargo for Astrobotic's private customers, including a can of sports drink, a physical Bitcoin, as well as human and animal ashes and DNA.
Astrobotic is the latest private entity to fail in a soft landing, after an Israeli nonprofit and a Japanese company.
NASA had paid Astrobotic more than $100 million to transport its cargo, under an experimental program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services. The overall goal is to initiate a commercial lunar economy and reduce its own overhead costs.
Although it didn't work out this time, NASA officials have made it clear that their “more shots on goal” strategy means more chances to score, and the next attempt, by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, will be launched in February.
Astrobotic itself will get another chance in November with its Griffin lander transporting NASA's VIPER rover to the moon's south pole.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)