The spacecraft, which was supposed to land on the moon in preparation for the next human mission, leaked fuel into space after the explosion. It is now moving towards Earth.
An American company’s moon lander that suffered a fuel leak is now heading toward Earth and will likely burn up in the atmosphere, start-up Astrobotic announced on Saturday.
The company has been releasing regular updates on the status of the Peregrine lander since its Jan. 8 launch on the ULA group’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, which brings together Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Shortly after separation from the rocket, the spacecraft suffered an onboard explosion and it quickly became clear that it would not be able to make a soft landing on the Moon, as originally planned, due to a fuel leak.
The Astrobotic team, however, managed to launch scientific experiments and collect flight data on behalf of NASA and other space agencies.
“Our latest estimate shows the spacecraft heading towards Earth, where it will likely burn up in the atmosphere“, indicated a company based in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) at X.The team is currently evaluating possible options and we will update you as soon as possible.ยป
The robot has been in space for more than five days and is currently 390,000 kilometers from our planet, Astrobotic added.
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Human ashes and animal DNA
In addition to scientific instruments, the spacecraft is carrying cargo for Astrobotic’s private clients, including cans of sports drinks, physical bitcoins, and human and animal ashes and DNA.
It was also supposed to transport $108 million worth of scientific equipment for NASA.
To date, only four countries – the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India – have successfully landed a spacecraft on the Moon. Of those, only the United States has already sent humans there.
In recent years, private Israeli and Japanese companies have also attempted to land on the moon, but these missions have ended in crashes.
Despite this failure, NASA officials have indicated that they intend to continue increasing their efforts to increase their chances of success. Next February, there will be intuitive machines.
Astrobotic will have another chance to take NASA’s VIPER rover to the moon’s south pole with its Griffin lander in November.
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