The Squiz

An American-led mission to make the nation’s first Moon landing in 50 years would have been a monumental moment – if things went as planned… But yesterday, just a few hours into the Peregrine lander’s journey, the team announced its mission is likely doomed. That was a bit of a comedown after the lander – owned by private US company Astrobotic Technology – successfully launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. But 7 hours later, they said it wasn’t likely to make it to the Moon by its 23 February deadline, if at all.

Eek… So what happened?

We’ll try to keep this straightforward… Astrobotic said despite the textbook launch, the Peregrine lander malfunctioned when it failed to point its solar panel towards the sun. That’s needed to power the battery for the journey and descent to the Moon. The team managed to get it turned toward the sun after a couple of hours but said the spacecraft was still suffering a “critical loss of propellant”, and they were turning the mission into a science/data retrieval project. Peregrine was the first commercial Moon launch attempt in the US, but NASA was still all over it. Shortly after Astrobotic’s announcement that all wasn’t well, NASA’s Joel Kearns said the setback was an opportunity “to learn and grow”. “Space is hard. We support our vendors and look forward to learning all we can,” the agency said.

What else is in the space pipeline?

For one, Artemis II – it’s NASA’s flagship program to get astronauts back on the Moon’s surface for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972. The goal was for 4 astronauts to be launched into space by November this year, but it’s also hit a snag, with NASA tipped to announce a months-long delay because more time is needed to make things safe. But enough about the US – let’s not forget Australia’s own Moon lander – named Roo-ver in a public vote run by the Australian Space Agency last year – is tipped to launch in 2026. Up, up, and away…