Astrobotic’s Peregrine spacecraft has mere hours of power left, forcing last-ditch efforts to eke out as much from the ill-fated mission as possible.
Astrobotic, the team behind the Peregrine spacecraft, is urgently working to extract any possible value from its failing mission. This comes after a catastrophic propellant leak occurred just after yesterday’s launch, ending the spacecraft’s attempt to land on the Moon.
The 2,829-pound (1,283-kilogram) Peregrine lander reached space early yesterday, after the picturesque inaugural launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. Following orbital insertion, Astrobotic, the Pittsburgh-based developer of Peregrine, was able to switch the vehicle on, including its thermal, propulsion, and power controllers. Soon thereafter, however, the spacecraft began to lose propellant at a critical rate, raising fears that that Peregrine would not reach the lunar surface.
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