American spacecraft malfunctioned on the way to the Moon

After the regular launch of the private American module Peregrine (Sapsan) into low-Earth orbit, its engine malfunctioned, so it is unlikely to reach the lunar surface. Thus, the debut commercial mission to deliver a robotic spacecraft to the Moon will most likely fail.

It's a shame, it's annoying, but... okay!

"Reporter" recently reported about preparations for the mentioned expedition. Alas, expectations were not met. Peregrine, created by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, ran into trouble shortly after liftoff last Monday in Florida. The launch of an “advanced” launch vehicle called Vulcan went well. But later it turned out that the insulating material on the landing module was damaged, and rocket fuel was leaking through the damage. Thus, fuel is used up ahead of time...



On this occasion, Astrobotic management issued an official statement:


As you know, Peregrine is the pioneer of NASA’s ambitious project for commercial delivery of payloads to the Moon (Commercial Lunar Payload Services, abbreviated CLPS). CLPS has been known since 2018. From the point of view of the then NASA Deputy Administrator for Science, Thomas Zurbuchen, from the very beginning the project was considered risky, but it was designed to minimize flight costs by making communication with the planet regular.

There is a conflict of interest

American space explorers are moving to new principles that are radically different from the sixty-year-old program embodied in a series of lunar robotic vehicles of the 20th century. The implementation of the traditional concept is becoming more and more expensive, and NASA decided to attract serious market players with their know-how, which are cheaper than classical solutions and could create conditions for the successful activities of developers, enterprises, as well as specialized space departments wishing to explore the Moon.

The general customer of Peregrine was NASA, which financed Astrobotic for $108 million to carry out 5 experiments. As a result, the mission should deliver to the Earth’s natural satellite a compact rover designed by creative youth from Carnegie Mellon University, samples with installations for experiments by the space departments of Mexico and Germany, as well as 66 memorial capsules with DNA and ashes of people who wished to be buried in this way. In this regard, the current leader of the Navajo Indian tribe, Buu Nygren, sent a message to the United States Department of Transport and NASA, where he condemned the mentioned action, since for many indigenous peoples of the New World the night light is a sacred concept.

However, getting to the moon on a small budget turned out to be more difficult than it seemed at first glance. The failure only confirmed skepticism regarding private startups to organize research on the lunar surface and soil. Let us remind you that it is part of the activities to prepare astronauts for the flight to the Moon according to the Artemis program.

Is the game worth the candle

So, Peregrine was launched on January 8 at 2:18 a.m. local time. About an hour later, the ship entered a highly elliptical orbit, and the onboard complex operated stably. To give time for prompt diagnosis of possible problems, the Astrobotic company designed the trajectory so that the device would make one and a half orbits around the Earth, after which it would continue on its way to lunar orbit for 15-20 days.

And then what was described above happened. In addition, the satellite experienced power outages. At the flight control center, the solar panels were adjusted to the sun, which made it possible to charge the battery. But fuel problems made it clear that the set goal (landing on the Moon) could hardly be achieved. Apparently, the Americans are not telling us something - a suspiciously large number of critical problems arose simultaneously during the first stage of the flight: the skin, the fuel system, solar cells...

Astrobotic is the third non-state actor to attempt to send a spacecraft to the Moon, and appears to be the third to fail. The next CLPS mission from Houston-based Intuitive Machines with an expedition to the planet's south pole is scheduled for mid-February. Due to the failure, NASA may now question the feasibility of the upcoming mission. By the way, the Japanese national space agency JAXA is also going to land a small experimental vehicle on the Moon around January 20th. However, despite the sad news, the Japanese are unlikely to give up their idea.

The history of public-private partnerships for lunar exploration is not encouraging

It all started when in 2007, Astrobotic, SpaceIL and Ispace decided to take part in the Google Lunar X Prize competition with a prize fund of $20 million for the right to become the first commercial cluster to conquer the Moon. The competition was quietly closed in 2018, and for 11 years, not one of their teams has been in space. However, the initiative was not in vain...

In 2019, the Beresheet ship of the Israeli company SpaceIL was destroyed in a fall due to engine failure on approach to the target. Last year, a Japanese Ispace module crashed due to a navigation error after running out of fuel.

The track record of national space agencies looks somewhat better. The Indian spacecraft crashed in 2019 during landing when it hit the surface of the planet, but a second attempt in 2023 was successful. But the first space mission of this kind in the history of modern Russia, Luna-25, crashed last year.

The only state that is more or less lucky in this regard is China. The Chinese, starting in 2013, successively landed three manipulators on the Moon. In the beginning of the year, the fourth is planned to be thrown to the far side of the planet. All that remains is to wish the Celestial Empire good luck.