The Hayabusa lunar lander’s final resting place appears to be back in its hometown from whence it departed. The doomed spacecraft suffered an anomaly shortly after launch, has been leaking propellant ever since, and is expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. astrobotic I wrote about it in this weekend’s X update. The company will hold a press conference with NASA on Thursday, January 18th at 12pm ET to discuss the fate of the lander.
Peregrine has been around much longer than anyone thought so far since the leak was first discovered on January 8th, and Astrobotic has been posting status updates around the clock. . The company denied the possibility of a soft landing on the moon a few days ago, but there is some uncertainty as to exactly where it will land. Hayabusa managed to reach the distance of the moon. 238,000 miles On Friday, there were 242,000 transmissions from Earth as of Saturday. However, due to the Moon’s current position in its orbit, there was nothing to respond to.
If all goes according to plan, Peregrine could encounter the moon about 15 days after liftoff, at which point it could begin its transition from Earth orbit to lunar orbit. It’s only been six days, but Peregrine’s fuel supply continues to dwindle, and it looks like it won’t last another nine days. “The propellant leak complicates our analysis efforts and adds uncertainty to the vehicle’s trajectory predictions,” Astrobotic wrote in its latest update on Saturday. “Our latest assessment indicates that the spacecraft is on course for Earth and is likely to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.”
It was always a known risk that Peregrine Mission 1 could end this way. Landing on the moon is notoriously difficult. This commercial mission is the first contracted under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, said Chris Calvert, NASA’s CLPS program manager, at a press conference prior to the launch last week. “We recognize that success cannot be guaranteed.”