Astrobotic moon landing threatened despite successful Space Coast launch on ULA Vulcan

While United Launch Alliance was celebrating a successful launch from Florida's 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. Eastern time 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 trajectory.

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 and 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 follow-up 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 reestablish communications with Peregrine with potentially good news, but the followed up with a more dire mission warning.

“The team’s improvised maneuver was successful in reorienting Peregrine’s solar array towards the sun,” the company posted. “We are now charging the battery. The Mission Anomaly Board continues to evaluate the data we’re receiving and is assessing the status of what we believe to be the root of the anomaly: a failure within the propulsion system.”

About 15 minutes after, though, the company posted, “Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant. The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture. We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.”

If it can’t continue its solar power positioning and maintain power for what’s supposed to be up to three corrective propulsion maneuvers, it could miss the moon entirely.

“We are grateful for the outpouring of support we’re receiving —from messages on social media to phone calls and helping hands,” the company posted. “This is what makes the space industry so special, that we unite in the face of adversity. A heartfelt thank you from the entire Peregrine Mission One team.”

NASA’s CLPS program has several moon missions lined up, including a second but larger lunar lander called Griffin from Astrobotic that’s currently planned to launch later in 2024.

“Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow,” said NASA’s Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in the Science Mission Directorate. “We will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration and commercial development of the moon.”

First up, though, as early as next month is Houston-based commercial company Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, looking to fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center and potentially touching down on the moon as early as Feb. 22.

Including the Peregrine mission, NASA has nine CLPS contracts on order with as many as five missions that could fly this year. The program is designed to foster commercial companies’ progress to become viable lunar service providers, of which NASA would simply become a customer as opposed to having to manage entire missions. Contracts call on the companies to build their landers, line up a rocket to get them to the moon and take care of all communication. NASA is just along for the ride.

In the case of Peregrine, NASA paid Astrobotic $108 million for the mission. For that cost, it assigned five science payloads worth about $5 million, Kearns said. If none are able to make it to the moon, NASA has backups that could potentially fly on future CLPS missions to the moon. Astrobotic was flying an additional 15 payloads for other customers it had lined up to help offset costs for the launch.

While the moonbound hopes of Astrobotic turned sour, ULA was still reveling in success of its rocket, which finally made it to orbit after years of delays.

Powered by new American-made engines from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flying for the first time, the Vulcan Centaur launch paves the way for ULA to replace its remaining stable of Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.

Dubbed Cerfitication-1, the mission is the first of two flights required by the Department of Defense before ULA can begin national security missions. It has four DOD missions for Vulcan slated for 2024, among 70 missions for the new rocket already in the books. Certification-2 will be as early as April on a mission to send Sierra Space’s new Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.

While officials plan to go over the maiden flight’s data for at least the next two months, early signs point to a complete success as far as the rocket is concerned.

Vulcan carved a bright streak of light over the clear Space Coast sky amid cheers from the crowds gathered at KSC’s press site that were drowned out by the soundwave of the rocket’s 1.7 million pounds of thrust, which in turn set off a symphony of car alarms.

“Tremendous excitement and anticipation,” said ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno ahead of launch. “I’ve got to tell you, I’ve done over 400 launches. All of them, I always get butterflies. This one’s really special because of what it means to our country, to our customers, to the team that has worked so hard.”

An hour into the mission, Bruno was back with a giddy smile.

“Yeehaw. I am so thrilled I can't tell you how much,” he said. “I am so proud of this team. Oh my gosh, this has been years of hard work. So far this has been an absolutely beautiful mission.”

Also flying and attached to the Centaur upper stage and headed for a permanent deep space orbit is a half-pound memorial with the partial remains and DNA of more than 200 people including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and actors James “Scotty” Doohan, Nichelle “Lt. Uhura” Nichols and DeForest “Dr. McCoy” Kelly, as part of Celestis Inc.’s Enterprise Flight. Among the DNA are hair samples from presidents George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Once at its final destination, the stage will be Enterprise Station.

This became the Space Coast’s third launch of the year following a pair of SpaceX Falcon 9 missions from neighboring Space Launch Complex 40, including the latest Starlink mission that lifted off on Sunday evening nine hours earlier.

_____