The Peregrine Spacecraft represented an important step for NASA’s Moon missions. However, it could not complete its mission due to a fuel leak that started immediately after its launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Still, he managed to spend just over 10 days in space. The spacecraft burned up in Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday. However, he did not forget to share photos of the Earth and its last minutes before it burned. Here are the details…
Peregrine Spacecraft sent a message to Earth in its last minutes!
The Peregrine Spacecraft was designed by commercial space company Astrobotic. In this way, Astrobotic, together with the Peregrine Spacecraft, was competing to become the first commercial lander to make a soft landing on the lunar surface. Additionally, had Astrobotic succeeded in this mission, it would have made it the first US lander to reach the moon since the last Apollo mission more than fifty years ago.
However, a propellant leak that occurred immediately after launch prevented it from completing this mission. Authorities think this was caused by a valve that failed to close itself properly. Unfortunately, the unexpected failure of the spacecraft means that the US’s hope of reaching the moon for a soft landing has been postponed.
Despite all the disappointment, Astrobotic engineers do not call this mission a complete failure. Because they were able to operate some of the 21 payloads placed on the Peregrine Spacecraft. They also managed to retrieve data from them.
However, the spacecraft managed to send one last message to Earth before it burned up. The last photo taken by the spacecraft shows a spectacular view of Earth with some sunlight around it, with part of the spacecraft in the foreground.
Additionally, Astrobotic plans to launch the Griffin lander in November. For this mission, the company will use everything it learned from the Peregrine mission, which failed to reach the lunar surface.
{{user}} {{datetime}}
{{text}}