Astrobotic Technology, the company that developed the first lunar lander launched from the United States in five decades, said its spacecraft suffered “critical” propellant loss while attempting to self-correct after encountering a major problem in space.
Just hours after launching from Florida toward the moon early Monday morning, the company announced the spacecraft was in danger. The lunar lander, called Peregrine, was unable to position itself toward the sun, likely due to a propulsion problem, the company said. The idiosyncratic orientation prevented the spacecraft from charging its batteries.
“Unfortunately, it appears that the propulsion system failure 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 stabilize this loss, but given the situation we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture. We are currently assessing which alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.”
That could mean the company won’t attempt to land the Peregrine lander on the moon, as was expected on February 23.
From launch to a lunar trajectory
Astrobotic was initially able to make contact with the vehicle after launch at 2:18 a.m. ET, but then the mission encountered a problem that left the vehicle pointed away from the sun and unable to charge its battery.
In an update posted on social media Monday, Astrobotic said it believes the likely cause of the problem is “a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the spacecraft’s ability to soft-land on the moon.”
Astrobotic initially said the anomaly — a spaceflight term for an issue or problem that threatens a mission — “prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-facing orientation,” the company posted at 9:37 a.m. ET on X. It added that its engineers resolved the problem were solving in real time.
A sun-facing position is usually necessary to provide solar energy to charge a spacecraft’s batteries.
Mission controllers “then developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient the solar panels toward the sun,” the company said.
That effort proved successful, Astrobotic said.
“The team’s improvised maneuver was successful in reorienting Peregrine’s solar panel toward the sun. We are now charging the battery,” the company said in an update posted at 12:34 p.m. ET.
Still, the company said it had to correct the underlying propulsion problem. The spacecraft would have to use its onboard thrusters to make a soft landing on the moon.
A successful first stage
The lunar lander, named Peregrine after the world’s fastest bird, appeared to have a completely successful first leg of its journey after taking off atop a Vulcan Centaur rocket developed by joint Lockheed Martin and Boeing company United Launch Alliance.
It was the first-ever flight of a Vulcan Centaur rocket, a new vehicle from ULA designed to replace the older series of rockets.
The company confirmed just after 3 a.m. ET that the Vulcan Centaur performed as expected, putting the Peregrine lunar lander into a trans-lunar injection orbit, according to ULA. That involves a precisely timed engine burn that pushed the Peregrine lander onto a path in Earth’s orbit that would allow it to sync with the moon, some 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away.
The Peregrine lander was then expected to fire its own onboard thrusters, using up to three maneuvers to determine its path.
In a statement, Astrobotic said Peregrine successfully began communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Network, activated its electronic systems and “the thermal, propulsion and power controllers, all turned on and performed as expected.”
“Following the successful activation of the propulsion systems, Peregrine entered a safe operational state,” the company said.
However, it was afterward that the Peregrine lander experienced the ‘anomaly’.
Peregrine mission deployment
Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic Technology developed Peregrine under a $108 million contract with NASA. The vehicle was designed from the start to be relatively cheap – with the aim of fulfilling NASA’s vision to reduce the cost of placing a robotic lander on the moon by asking the private sector to compete for such contracts.
Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told CNN on January 2 that he considered this first launch a test mission.
“This is really kind of a 50-50 shots on goal approach, where it’s really more about the industry succeeding, and not about a specific mission,” Thornton said.
Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, issued a statement Monday saying, “Every success and every setback are opportunities to learn and grow. We will use this lesson to advance our efforts to advance lunar science, exploration and commercial development.”
In a statement, NASA added that it plans to continue sharing updates as more information becomes available and expects the space agency’s administrator, Bill Nelson, to provide comments later in the day.
It is not yet clear whether it will still be possible for Astrobotic to land Peregrine. In the interview with CNN, Thornton said the spacecraft was designed to make three propulsive maneuvers in orbit — but no more. If you were to spend extra fuel, the vehicle would not have enough power to make a controlled landing.
Thornton, who previously said this Peregrine mission cost Astrobotic more money than it made, also noted to CNN what it would mean for the company if this mission fails.
“It will certainly have some impact on our relationships and our ability to secure additional missions in the future,” Thornton said. “It certainly wouldn’t be the end of the company, but it would certainly be a challenge.”
If the moon mission fails, it could mean a major loss not only for Astrobotic, but also for NASA and other countries and institutions with payloads on board the Peregrine lander.
A loss of the lander this early in the mission would also mean that Astrobotic would not be able to test the vehicle’s ability to land on the lunar surface.
The Peregrine vehicle carries five NASA scientific instruments and fifteen other payloads from various organizations and countries. The commercial payloads on the lander included souvenirs and even human remains that paying customers had paid to fly to the lunar surface.
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