US spaceship lost over S. Pacific following failed Moon mission

WASHINGTON – A crippled American spaceship has been lost over a remote region of the South Pacific, probably burning up in the atmosphere in a fiery end to its failed mission to land on the Moon.

Space robotics company Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was launched on Jan 8 under an experimental new partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and private industry that is intended to reduce costs for American taxpayers and seed a lunar economy.

But it experienced an explosion shortly after separating from its rocket and had been leaking fuel, damaging its outer shell as well as making it impossible to reach its destination.

In its latest update, Astrobotic posted on social media platform X that it had lost contact with its spacecraft shortly before 9pm Greenwich Mean Time on Jan 18, indicating a “controlled re-entry over open water” as it had predicted.

The Pittsburgh-based company added that it would await independent confirmation of Peregrine’s fate from the relevant government authorities. A previous update provided atmospheric re-entry coordinates that are a few hundred kilometres south of Fiji, albeit with a wide margin of error.

Engineers had executed a series of small engine burns to position the boxy, golf cart-size robot over the ocean to “minimise the risk of debris reaching land”.

Astrobotic also tweeted a photograph taken by the spaceship on its final day, revealing the Earth’s crescent as it positioned itself between the Sun and our planet.

Peregrine operated for more than 10 days in space, exciting enthusiasts even after it became clear that Astrobotic would not succeed in its goal to be the first company to achieve a controlled touchdown on the Moon – and the first American soft landing since the end of the Apollo era, more than five decades ago.

Nasa had paid the company more than US$100 million (S$134.2 million) under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme to ship its science instruments to the Moon, as it prepares to send American astronauts back to the barren world later this decade under the Artemis programme.

Astrobotic also carried more colourful cargo on behalf of private clients, such as the DNA and cremated remains of some 70 people, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.

Although it has not worked out this time, Nasa officials have made clear that their strategy of “more shots on goal” means more chances to score. The next attempt under CLPS, by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, launches in February.

The Japanese space agency’s Moon Sniper, which launched in September 2023, will be the next spaceship to attempt a soft lunar touchdown, a notoriously difficult feat, shortly after midnight Japan time on Jan 19.

If it succeeds, Japan will be the fifth nation to complete the achievement, after the Soviet Union, United States, China and India. AFP