(Washington) The first landing of an American craft on the Moon in more than 50 years will probably have to wait: a private lunar lander encountered an “anomaly” shortly after takeoff on Monday, losing a large amount of fuel in flight, said the company Astrobotic having developed it.
The lander took off from Florida before dawn on Monday, aboard the new Vulcan Centaur rocket from the ULA group, which brings together Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The device, named Peregrinewas powered up shortly after separation from the rocket, and communication could be successfully established.
But “unfortunately, an anomaly occurred,” Astrobotic explained in a statement on its solar panels.
An “improvised maneuver” was ultimately successful, recharging the ship’s battery, the company later said.
However, she added that the problem was the result of a problem with the propulsion system, causing “a critical loss” of fuel.
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, Astrobotic indicated that Peregrine only had about 40 hours of fuel left before the craft became “uncontrollable”.
PHOTO JOE SKIPPER, REUTERS
Until then, “the goal is to bring as close as possible Peregrine of the Moon”, indicated the operator, without specifying whether a disaster landing on the moon would be attempted.
Astrobotic had earlier published an image showing part of the exterior of the device, visibly damaged: a photo which supports the hypothesis of a propulsion problem, according to the company, which promised news later in the evening.
Peregrine was developed by Astrobotic with the support of NASA, which commissioned the company to transport scientific equipment to the Moon – a $108 million contract.
Astrobotic hoped to become the first private company to successfully land on the Moon, and the first American spacecraft to do so since the end of the Apollo program. The moon landing attempt was scheduled for February 23.
In recent years, private Israeli and Japanese companies have also attempted to land on the moon, but these missions ended in crashes.
Astrobotic boss John Thornton said he was aware of the risks of failure during a press conference on Friday.
Partnership with the private sector
The stakes of this flight were also high for NASA. The launch inaugurated a series of lunar missions supported by the American space agency, eager to encourage the development of a lunar economy.
A failure of the mission will not fail to raise questions about this new strategy from NASA, which wishes to rely partly on the private sector for its lunar ambitions.
“Spaceflight is a daring adventure,” reacted NASA boss Bill Nelson on X. “NASA will continue to expand its reach into the cosmos with our commercial partners,” he promised.
The space agency has contracted with several companies, including Astrobotic, to send scientific equipment to the Moon. The program, called CLPS, provides businesses with crucial financing.
Another selected company, Intuitive Machines, is also scheduled to launch for the Moon in mid-February with a SpaceX rocket.
This strategy should allow NASA “to make the trip more often, more quickly and for less money,” explained Joel Kearns, a senior official within the space agency.
“The success of all attempts is not assured,” he admitted. “What we have asked of the industry is very difficult to do. »
To date, only four nations – the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India – have successfully landed a craft on the Moon.
A mission from the Japanese space agency (JAXA) is also due to attempt to land in about two weeks. Russia, for its part, spectacularly missed a moon landing this summer.
Human ashes
Thanks to the instruments shipped, NASA was to study radiation as well as the composition of the lunar surface in an area never before explored up close.
This involves NASA in particular preparing for the return of astronauts to our natural satellite, which it is planning with its Artemis program.
But the space agency wasn’t the only customer on board, and the mission also caused controversy: Among the cargoes of private customers transported are the ashes or DNA of dozens of people, including those of the creator of the famous science fiction television series Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry. A partnership with the Celestis company, specializing in “commemorative spaceflights”.
Sending these ashes to the Moon aroused the anger of the Navajo Native American tribe, which denounced the “desecration of a sacred place” for “many Native American cultures”, without however obtaining the postponement of the launch.