We all knew it was coming; we just didn’t want to believe it.
After a successful launch of the Peregrine Lunar Lander early Monday, it wasn’t long before the spacecraft began having problems. Power on board the spacecraft quickly became an issue, as flight controllers struggled to keep the craft’s solar arrays pointed toward the sun.
Just as disappointment in the important Artemis mission precursor began to sink in, there was a glimmer of hope as flight controllers were able to reorient the spacecraft by Monday evening, and announced that the onboard batteries had been fully recharged. Unfortunately, the renewed enthusiasm for the mission’s success was short-lived, as the craft’s Pittsburgh based manufacturer, Astrobotic, announced that a propellant leak had been discovered, attributing the orientation problems to the leak,
Astrobotic capped off Monday evening on a high note, showing the first pictures from the spacecraft. The company announced that they were working to continue the mission by operating with the goal of gathering all of the scientific data they could. The announcement indicated that the company was reassessing the data, leaving open a narrow corridor of hope for salvage of the mission’s lunar landing in the minds of many.
As Tuesday, January 9th rolled around, the company, after remaining silent for the initial hours of the morning, Astrobotic again began issuing updates. Astrobotic said in a Tweet that the goal was to get the spacecraft as close to the moon as possible before the spacecraft lost the ability to orient itself toward the sun.
Then came the news that everyone knew was coming, but still hoped we would not hear. After 32 hours of flight, the company officially announced that there was “no chance” that the Peregrine Lunar Lander would be making a soft landing on the moon.
According to the company, they believe that a valve between the helium and oxidizer tank failed to properly close, resulting in a “high pressure rush” of helium into the oxidizer tank, rupturing the tank.
