Peregrine’s moon mission at risk of failure – but those responsible won’t go to court over weapons charges: A$AP Rocky pleads not guilty

The first planned US moon landing in more than 50 years is apparently on the verge of failure – but those responsible are not ready to give up despite the Peregrine landing module running out of fuel. The spacecraft must now be brought at least as close as possible to Earth’s satellite, the company Astrobotic said on Monday evening (local time).

Peregrine was launched Monday morning on the new Vulcan Centaur rocket from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. After 48 minutes, Astrobotic’s lunar landing module separated from the launch vehicle without any problems. But a few hours later an ‘anomaly’ occurred that prevented the capsule from being properly aimed at the sun. which meant that the battery on board could not be charged properly.

There is still energy for about 40 hours, Astrobotic explained Monday evening. Afterwards, Peregrine would fall into an ‘uncontrollable madness’. The company later explained:

Emergency landing on the moon?

Astrobotic has not provided any specific information on how to proceed. But experts speculated that the company might consider an emergency landing on the moon even if it was unable to control it.

The original plan was for Peregrine to orbit the celestial body for several weeks after arriving at the moon and then land on February 23. Astrobotic wanted to become the first private company to successfully land on Earth’s satellite. NASA paid the company more than a hundred million dollars (about 85 million Swiss francs) for it.

Landing on the moon is an enormous challenge; about half of the attempts fail. So far, only the US, the Soviet Union, China and India have managed to land on the moon. Japan’s space agency launched the Slim mini-probe in September, which is expected to land on Earth’s satellite in mid-January. (saw/sda/afp)