'No chance of landing': First-ever US private lunar lander mission fails, firm blames valve fault

Astrobotic, the company that launched the United States' first private lunar lander mission, said on Tuesday (Jan9) that the mission was a failure. With this, America's hopes of placing the first spacecraft on Moon since the Apollo era were dashed.

Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander lifted off on Monday sitting atop United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket. The launch took place from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The lander had some initial success after separating from its launch vehicle. But Astrobotic reported malfunctions just a few hours later. The operators at the company were not able to turn Peregrine's solar panels towards the Sun for its batteries.

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This happened due to a propulsion problem which also caused damage to the spacecraft's exterior.

On Tuesday, the company said that there was "no chance of soft landing" on the Moon.

The lander still has about 40 hours of fuel left, and the company has said that it was planning to operate the craft till the fuel runs out.

Taking to X, the company in an update later said:"Astrobotic's current hypothesis about the Peregrine spacecraft's propulsion anomaly is that a valve between the helium pressurant and the oxidizer failed to reseal after actuation during initialization."

"This led to a rush of high-pressure helium that spiked the pressure in the oxidizer tank beyond its operating limit and subsequently ruptured the tank," it added.

NASA had paid Astrobotic more than USD 100 million to land scientific instruments on the Moon to find out information about surface composition and radiation in the Moon's mid-latitude region.

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NASA is preparing to go back to the Moon but lately, the United States has turned to private sector to stimulate the lunar economy and to cut costs. The latest setback to the Peregrine lander may bring into question the strategy.

Astrobot however maintained that it will continue to receive valuable data which will help its next mission.

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The company is preparing to send the Griffin lander which will transport a NASA rover to the Moon's south pole. The mission is slated for later months of this year.

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Peregrine is the latest private company to try and fail at a soft lunar landing.

The Beresheet lander from Israel was first attempt by a non-government firm to land on Moon. But the attempt failed in 2019. Japan's Hakuto mission operated by iSpace crashed in April last year.

(With inputs from agencies)