Astrobotic’s lunar lander will reenter Earth’s atmosphere over a remote part of the South Pacific Ocean tomorrow afternoon, bringing an end to a failed lunar landing mission.
The Peregrine lunar lander is expected to re-enter around 4 p.m. EDT over an uninhabited area of the ocean near Fiji, according to coordinates published by Astrobotic in an update on Wednesday. The spacecraft will not survive the return. The company said it was working with NASA to monitor its return path and ensure Peregrine’s return is safe and predictable.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic has been providing frequent updates to its Peregrine lunar lander since its launch aboard United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur on Jan. 8. While the launch was carried out without any issues, Astrobotic reported an anomaly in the spacecraft just hours after it was deployed into orbit.
The source of the anomaly was a persistent leak of fuel, which prevented Peregrine from pointing its solar arrays toward the Sun. While Astrobotic engineers successfully reoriented the arrays, the company later said it suspected the root cause of the problem was a propellant leak in the propulsion system. This is likely due to a valve in the pressure system that has failed to close.
The company confirmed the presence “There is no chance of a soft landing on the moon.” Due to leakage the next day.
Astrobotic has extended the life of the mission much longer than originally thought: on the same day that the company confirmed that a moon landing was out of the question, it estimated that the spacecraft had only 40 hours of propellant left. But by the time it reenters the atmosphere tomorrow, Peregrine will have been working in space for more than ten days.
Because of the propellant leak, Astrobotic said it devised a two-step process to guide the spacecraft on its expected return path. In the first, the company ran the five main engines in very short pulses, because longer burners were taken off the table due to leakage. Peregrine carried out 23 small main engine fires overall.
The company also adjusted the spacecraft’s “attitude,” or orientation, so that a propellant leak turned Peregrine toward the South Pacific Ocean.
“The measures implemented by the team were aimed at reducing the risk of debris reaching Earth,” Astrobotic said in a statement on Wednesday. “Astrobotic continues to work closely with NASA and other relevant government authorities to keep everyone informed and to solicit feedback as appropriate.”
Although the company fell short of the mission goal, Astrobotic said it was able to obtain valuable data from many of the payloads on board. Part of those payloads were science instruments and other research from NASA, which supported the mission in a $79.5 million contract awarded to Astrobotic in 2019.