United Launch Alliancelaunched the Astrobotic-developed Peregrine landeraboard its Vulcan Centaur rocket on January 8.
But unfortunately, its not to be.
Weighing 2,829 pounds (1,283 kilograms), the Peregrine lander was not just a spacecraft.
Conceptual view of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander on the Moon.Image: Astrobotic
Peregrines untimely demise will undoubtedly stir debate about NASAs practice of working with private companies.
Intuitive Machines plans to launch at least two missions to the Moon later this year.
Peregrine-1 was the first to launch under CLPS, in what is now an inauspicious start for the program.
Conceptual image of the Intuitive Machines lander set to launch later this year.Image: Intuitive Machines
As industry experts explain, however, its important for NASA to stay the course.
IsraelsBeresheetand IndiasChandrayaan-2lander crashed onto the lunar surface in 2019; RussiasLuna-25and Japans ispaceHakuto-R M1met the same fate last year.
Whitman Cobb believes that NASA never expected a perfect success rate for the program.
CLPS was directly aimed at the faster-cheaper corner of the triangle.
As Lembeck points out, failures in the commercial sector are frequently treated as informative successes.
The bottom line, says Autry, is that this is a learning process.
I am disappointed but not surprised by the outcome.
Astrobotic will be back with better results, he said.
Its the economy, stupid
Theres an obvious economic upside to CLPS.
The lessons learned will guide Astrobotic and other companies toward safer and more successful missions in the future.
With this first unsuccessful attempt, however, NASAs CLPS now finds itself under the microscope.
Time will tell if the space agencys outsourcing strategy will pay off as intended.
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