According to the company, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander experienced a propellant leak shortly after embarking on its journey to space, rendering it incapable of making a soft landing on the moon. The first attempted U.S. moon landing in fifty years was reported to have 40 hours of fuel remaining, allowing it to function as a spacecraft while engineers reevaluate its mission in orbit.
The spacecraft was carried into space by Vulcan, a rocket developed over the course of ten years by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Despite a successful launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the lander encountered a propulsion system issue en route to the moon.
In addition to the propulsion issue, the lander failed to position itself correctly in relation to the sun after launch, causing its battery levels to plummet. Despite this setback, Astrobotic was able to resolve the issue and restore the lander’s functionality. The company stated that its team is working to prolong the operational life of Peregrine, while continuing to gather data and test components and software for its next lunar lander mission.
Joey Roulette in Washington D.C. and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru contributed to this report, with editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Arun Koyyur.
