While El Segundo-based United Launch Alliance was celebrating a successful launch from Cape Canaveral early Monday, its main customer was troubleshooting issues with its lunar lander that threaten its chance to get to the moon.
Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander looked to be on its way after ULA’s Vulcan Centaur making its first-ever flight shot into the Space Coast sky at 2:18 a.m. from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41.
The Pittsburgh-based company’s lander was the first to launch under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract, and it did manage a successful separation from the upper Centaur Stage that placed it into a trans-lunar injection orbit.
A lot is riding on Astrobotic moon lander set for launch Monday on new Vulcan Centaur
Teams were able to then establish communications and activate Peregrine’s propulsion systems becoming fully operational, according to a company statement.
“Unfortunately, an anomaly occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation,” it stated later Monday morning. “The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will be providing updates as data is obtained an analyzed.”
Without the sun as a reliable power source, Peregrine’s mission that was aiming to land on the near-side of the moon on Feb. 23 is in jeopardy.
“The team believes that the likely cause of the unstable sun-pointing is a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon,” the company posted in followup statement. “As the team fights to troubleshoot the issue, the spacecraft battery is reaching operationally low levels.”
The company said it was able to perform “an improvised maneuver to reorient the solar panels toward the sun” just before it entered a planned period without communication.
Just before 1 p.m. the company said it was able to re-establish communications with Peregrine with…
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