Moon Mission Fails, NASA Program Delayed

AFP/APP

Washington: A private US lunar lander mission is doomed to fail, and NASA pushes back plans to return astronauts to the Moon.

The twin developments Tuesday represent blows to America’s ambitions to stimulate a commercial space economy, develop a lasting presence on Earth’s nearest neighbor, and use it as a jumping-off point for Mars.

China, meanwhile, is looming in the rearview mirror, targeting 2030 for a crewed landing.

Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander blasted off Monday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, then successfully separated from its rocket.

Just hours later, though, Astrobotic reported an inability to orient Peregrine’s solar panel towards the sun and keep its battery topped up. A propulsion system glitch was found to be causing a critical loss of fuel and damaging the spacecraft’s exterior.

The company said Monday the mission had “no chance of soft landing”—dashing hopes for the first ever successful landing by a non-government mission and America’s first soft touchdown on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

NASA has paid Astrobotic more than $100 million to ship scientific hardware to the Moon to answer questions about surface composition and radiation as the US space agency prepares to send astronauts back for long-term missions.

The failure doesn’t mean the strategy of ramping up commercial partnerships is innately flawed, Michael Lembeck, a former NASA official turned associate professor in aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois, told AFP.