01/13/2024 – 21:22
A private landing module from the United States, which had been losing fuel throughout its journey, is now heading towards Earth and will likely burn up in the atmosphere, the company that built it reported this Saturday (13).
Astrobotic has been providing periodic updates on the status of the Peregrine landing module since the beginning of its troubled journey, which began when it was launched by a new Vulcan rocket built by United Launch Alliance on January 8.
Shortly after separating from the rocket, the spacecraft suffered an onboard explosion and it became clear that it would not be able to land smoothly on the Moon due to the amount of fuel it was losing. However, the Astrobotic team was able to connect the scientific experiments it transported to NASA and other space agencies, collecting data about spaceflight.
“Our latest assessment now shows that the spacecraft is on its way to Earth, where it will likely burn up in Earth's atmosphere,” the Pittsburgh-based company said.
The box-shaped robot has already been in space for more than five days and is currently 390,000 kilometers from our planet, Astrobotic added.
Astrobotic is the latest private entity to fail in a landing attempt, following the failures of an Israeli non-profit organization and a Japanese company.
NASA had paid more than US$100 million (R$490 million) to Astrobotic to transport its cargo, as part of an experimental program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services. The overall goal is to boost a commercial lunar economy and reduce its own overhead costs.
Astrobotic will have another opportunity in November with its Griffin landing module, which will take NASA's VIPER explorer to the lunar south pole.
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