Astrobotic had set out to do what no other private space company had done before: land on the Moon. Founded in 2007 by leading roboticist Red Whittaker, the space company had plans to send its Vulcan Centaur rocket to the Moon, where a lunar lander named Peregrine would land on its surface.
Peregrine was set to mark the first lunar lander to touch down on the Moon in over five decades. It would also make history as the first lunar lander from a commercial company.
Unfortunately for Astrobotic, the mission went awry about six hours after takeoff on Monday. Due to technical difficulties with the spacecraft’s orientation, Peregrine was unable to turn its solar panels towards the Sun, preventing it from charging its batteries.
While engineers were eventually able to solve that issue and charge Peregrine, the spacecraft subsequently sprung a leak, triggering a “critical loss of propellant.”
The spacecraft now has about 40 hours of thruster fuel left. The Astrobotic team is aiming to get Peregrine as close to the Moon as possible, though there is "no chance" of a soft landing.
"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," Astrobotic said.
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