| Advertisement |
Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The Peregrine lunar lander, the first U.S. mission in five decades with a final destination of the moon, suffered a "critical loss of propellant" due to an issue within its propulsion system, its developer Astrobotic said Monday, following a successful launch from Florida. Astrobotic said Monday night that the propellant leak was causing Peregrine's thrusters to operate "well beyond their expected services life cycles" to keep it from tumbling out of control.
Advertisement
"If the thrusters can continue to operate, we believe the spacecraft could continue in a stable sun-pointing state for approximately 40 more hours, based on current fuel consumption," it said in an update on Peregrine Mission One.
The lunar lander lifted off aboard United Launch Alliance's first-ever Vulcan Centaur rocket at 2:18 a.m. EST from Florida's famous Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with the aim of returning the United States to the moon for the first time since the final 1972 flight of the Apollo program.
The Peregrine payload successfully separated from the rocket about 50 minutes later, but within hours of the launch the Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic reported an "anomaly" was preventing the craft from finding a "stable sun-pointing orientation" necessary for its solar panel to charge its batteries.
It later said the cause of the unstable sun-pointing was likely "a propulsion anomaly," one that "threatens the ability of the spacecraft to land on the moon."
Following a communications blackout with the lunar lander, the team at Astrobotic was able to re-establish contact with Peregrine and reorient its solar array toward the sun to charge its batteries, but a failure within the propulsion system had caused a "critical loss of propellant."
It said with its battery fully charged, engineers were using Peregrine's existing power to perform as many payload and spacecraft operations as possible.
"At this time, the goal is to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as we can before it loses the ability to maintain its sun-pointing position and subsequently loses power," it said Monday night.
The lunar lander was expected to attempt an historic moon landing Feb. 23.
"This mission really marks the beginning of a historic time," Alivia Chapla, director of marketing and communications at Astrobotic, said during the launch's live broadcast and prior to issues arising with Peregrine.
The lunar lander was meant to bring 20 payloads with it to the moon's surface, including five for NASA. Another five were originally planned but were reallocated for future missions, according to the U.S. federal agency.
Among NASA's scientific payloads is the Laser Retro-Reflector Array, the Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer and the Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System.
Six nations have payloads on the Peregrine commercial lunar lander, Astrobotic said. The lunar was also transporting human remains and the DNA of 66 people. According to NASA, the lander has a nearly 200-pound payload capacity.
The launch was also the first of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative, known as CLPS, which has the federal space agency contracting U.S. companies to deliver science and technology to the moon.
NASA said the companies permit it to conduct further exploration of the moon as it prepares to send the first woman and first person of color to its surface under its Artemis program.
"We wanted to tap into the new ideas, the entrepreneurial spirit and all the engineering innovation that these small companies and startup companies bring in the United States," Joel Kearns, associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said during the live broadcast.
"We think they can help make the overall moon effort much better." Weather was 85% favorable for the launch.
Monday's technical issue illustrates the challenge of lunar missions.
Among some of the high-profile moon missions to fail in recent memory was Japan's April 2023 Hakuto-R commercial lunar lander mission. It failed when ground control lost contact with the craft as it was scheduled to land on the lunar surface, resulting in a presumed crash landing.
In March, the month before, Relativity Space's unique 3D-printed rocket launched but did not reach orbit. Its engine failure came weeks after two aborted launch attempts.
A failed attempt by India to land on the moon during one of its first missions followed the April 2019 attempt by the first privately funded spacecraft to orbit the moon failed after experiencing issues during its descent -- a combination of engine and communication errors which resulted in a crash landing.
