CNN —
The Peregrine lunar lander has most likely met its flaming demise after traveling hundreds of thousands of miles through space and struggling with a fuel problem that destroyed its plans.
Around 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, the spacecraft was scheduled to come to an end of its abbreviated 10-day voyage when it crashed into Earth’s dense atmosphere over a secluded region of the South Pacific Ocean, directly east of Australia.
The Pittsburgh-based business Astrobotic Technologies, which worked with NASA to develop the Peregrine lander, confirmed the spacecraft’s demise by stating that it lost contact with the craft just before the scheduled reentry time, which “indicates the vehicle completed its controlled re-entry over open water in the South Pacific.”
On social media, the business did, however, add, “we await independent confirmation from government entities.”
At a news event on Friday at 1 p.m. ET, representatives from NASA and Astrobotic are anticipated to make public remarks regarding the mission.
With no problems, the launch sent the Peregrine lander safely into Earth’s orbit and set it on a course toward the moon. Since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, this would have been the first US mission to soft-land on the moon if the spacecraft had been successful in reaching the lunar surface.
Unfortunately, the Peregrine lander had serious problems a few hours into its single mission. The spacecraft had a serious problem with its onboard propulsion systems, according to Astrobotic, and was losing fuel, which prevented the lander from having enough gas to land gently on the moon.
Then, Astrobotic changed direction. As it traveled hundreds of kilometers in orbit, the corporation programmed the spacecraft to behave more like a satellite, testing various technologies and its onboard scientific instruments.
In the end, Astrobotic decided that the vehicle would be destroyed by crashing it quickly into Earth’s atmosphere.
What the collapse of Peregrine means:
NASA and Astrobotic have suffered a loss with the loss of the Peregrine lander.
This mission was made possible by an agreement signed between the two organizations, whereby NASA provided $108 million to support Astrobotic’s development efforts and enable the flight of five payloads. Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s research mission directorate, says the transaction was renegotiated due to pandemic-related supply chain concerns, and that price tag represents a roughly 36% increase over the initial contract value.
The Peregrine spacecraft is not the US space agency’s exclusive means of doing robotic study on the moon. Intuitive Machines, based in Houston, is one of the three firms that NASA has relationships with that are creating robotic lunar landers; the company may launch its first mission as early as mid-February.
NASA created those lunar lander contracts as “fixed price” agreements through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. This means that instead of paying a company when problems arise during the development process, NASA gives a single lump sum of money.
