Space travel
Moon landing failed: “Peregrine” probably burned up
The private mission launched a week ago from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. photo
© —/ULA/PA Media/dpa
The private space company Astrobotic actually wanted to make the first commercial landing on the moon with the “Peregrine” capsule, but there were problems immediately after takeoff.
After the “Peregrine” capsule made the first commercial landing on the If she missed the moon, the operating company Astrobotic lost contact with her, as expected.
This indicates that the capsule crashed in a controlled manner over the South Pacific around 10 p.m. CET on Thursday as planned and burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the Pittsburgh-based company announced on the X platform, formerly Twitter. However, there is still no independent confirmation of this. Astrobotic and the US space agency NASA have announced a press conference at 7 p.m. (CET) today.
Drive system malfunction
The private mission launched a week ago from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. However, problems arose shortly after take-off: due to a fault in the propulsion system, there was, among other things, a fuel leak. The engineers temporarily managed to stabilize the capsule, but the goal of a moon landing had to be abandoned.
The capsule was supposed to land in February in an area called Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness), completing the first – unmanned – US moon landing since the Apollo mission over 50 years ago.
“Peregrine” (in German: peregrine falcon) initially flew further and even reached the distance that the moon is from the Earth. After consultation with the US space agency Nasa, among others, it was then decided to allow the capsule to crash in a controlled manner, Astrobotic announced a few days ago.