Ten days after its launch, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander fell back to Earth today, ending a trip to the moon’s orbital distance and back that was doomed by a propellant leak. The mission began auspiciously on the night of Oct. 7-8 with a seemingly successful liftoff from Florida on United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan Centaur rocket, powered by Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engines. But hours after launch, the Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic team detected a problem with the propulsion system. So
Peregrine spacecraft, the private lunar lander launched by Astrobotic, may have failed to make a soft landing on the Moon, but made news for each day it was in the space. The journey will soon come to an end the spacecraft is likely to enter Earth's atmosphere in a matter of few hours.
It is estimated to enter the atmosphere at 2100 GMT on January 18 ( 0230 IST on January 19). The intense friction with the atmosphere will cause the spacecraft to burn up, while what remains of it will fall into the southern Pacific ocean.
A private US lunar lander that has been leaking fuel throughout its journey is now headed for Earth and will likely burn up in the atmosphere, the company said Saturday.