Space travel
No moon landing: “Peregrine” capsule is expected to burn up today
Astrobotic planned the first successful US moon landing since the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago, but a problem arose shortly after launch. photo
© —/ULA/PA Media/dpa
It was supposed to be the first unmanned US moon landing since the Apollo mission over 50 years ago – but the mission failed. Now the “Peregrine capsule” is supposed to crash in a controlled manner over the earth.
After the “Peregrine” capsule made the first commercial landing on the If it missed the moon, it is expected to crash over the earth in a controlled manner today. The capsule should burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific around 10 p.m. CET, said the Pittsburgh company Astrobotic. A joint press conference with the US space agency NASA has been announced for Friday.
The private “Peregrine” mission (in German: Peregrine Falcon) took off last week from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. However, problems arose shortly after take-off: a malfunction in the propulsion system led, among other things, to a fuel leak.
The engineers temporarily managed to stabilize the capsule, but the goal of landing on the moon 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.