Astrobotic has focused on the potential cause of the problems plaguing its Peregrine lunar module.
Peregrine launched early Monday morning (January 8) aboard United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur rocket, with the goal of becoming the first commercial spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon.
But that dream was dashed by a propellant leak shortly after Peregrine deployed from the top of the rocket. Astrobotic has been troubleshooting and analyzing this issue ever since and may now know what happened.
“Astrobotic’s current hypothesis for the propulsion anomaly on the Peregrine spacecraft is that the valve between the helium pressurizer and oxidizer failed to reseal after activation during initialization,” the company said in a statement. The representative has written in writing. X Posted on Tuesday afternoon (January 9).
“This led to an influx of high-pressure helium, causing the pressure within the oxidizer tank to rapidly rise above its operating limits, which subsequently caused the tank to rupture,” the researchers added.
Related: First photo from crippled civilian Peregrine lunar lander holds clues about anomaly
Astrobotic has been surprisingly transparent about Peregrine’s anomalies. Tuesday afternoon’s update was his eighth update the company has posted to his X since the breach occurred.
In Astrobotic’s Update No. 7 posted early Tuesday, the company announced that a fuel leak will make Peregrine’s planned moon landing impossible. The update also states that the lander is in stable operating mode and has approximately 40 hours of propellant remaining.
Peregrine carries 20 payloads for various customers. Among them, through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) program, he has five scientific instruments installed on the lander. None of these payloads reach their intended destination.
The next CLPS launch is scheduled for next month, when Houston company Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander will be launched toward the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Peregrine’s launch marked the long-awaited debut of the Vulcan Centaur, which will replace ULA’s venerable Atlas V and Delta rockets. Astrobotic stressed that Vulcan Centaur did a good job on Monday.
Astrobotic wrote in Update No. 8 that the rocket “inserted Peregrine into its planned lunar orbit without incident.” “There is no evidence of any propulsion abnormalities as a result of the launch.”