Peregrine Mission One

''Peregrine'' Lunar Lander flight 01, commonly referred to as Peregrine Mission One, was an unsuccessful American lunar lander mission. The lander, dubbed ''Peregrine'', was built by Astrobotic Technology and carried payloads for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine Mission One launched on 8 January 2024, at 2:18 am EST, on the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur (Vulcan) rocket. The goal was to land the first U.S.-built lunar lander on the Moon since the crewed Apollo Lunar Module on Apollo 17 in 1972.

The lander carried multiple payloads, with a payload capacity of 90 kg. Shortly after the lander separated from the Vulcan rocket in lunar injection orbit, a propellant leak developed that prevented the lander from completing its mission. After six days in orbit, the spacecraft was redirected into Earth's atmosphere, where it burned up over the Pacific Ocean on 18 January 2024.

History

In July 2017, Astrobotic announced an agreement with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to launch their ''Peregrine'' lander aboard a Vulcan launch vehicle. This first lunar lander mission, called Mission One, was initially to be launched in July 2021.

On 29 November 2018, Astrobotic was made eligible to bid on NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon.

In May 2019, Mission One received its first lander contract from NASA for 14 payloads. It also had 14 commercial payloads, including small rovers from Hakuto, Team AngelicvM, and a larger rover from Carnegie Mellon University, named ''Andy'', which has a mass of and is tall. Another small rover, Spacebit, weighing , was designed to travel at least on four legs. Other payloads include a library, in microprint on nickel, with Wikipedia contents and Long Now Foundation's Rosetta Project. Space burial companies Elysium Space and Celestis paid Astrobotic to carry human remains. The decision to include human remains was criticized by the Navajo Nation, whose president, Buu Nygren, argued that the Moon is sacred to the Navajo and other American Indian nations.

In June 2021, ULA CEO Tory Bruno announced that payload and engine-testing problems would delay the maiden flight of Vulcan, with Mission One aboard, to 2022. On 23 February 2023, ULA announced an expected launch date for the mission of 4 May 2023. After an anomaly during testing of the Vulcan Centaur on 29 March, the launch was delayed until June or July, and then until late 2023.

In early December 2023, Bruno said problems found during a wet dress rehearsal of the rocket would likely delay the launch until the next launch window, on 8 January.

''Peregrine'' carries a maximum payload mass of during Mission One, and it was planned to land on Gruithuisen Gamma.

The payload mass for the planned second mission (Mission Two) is capped at , and the Mission Three and later missions would carry the full payload capacity of .

Lander

In 2016, Astrobotic announced plans to build the ''Peregrine'' lander, based on their previous concept lander, ''Griffin'', which was larger but with the same payload capacity. Astrobotic hired Airbus Defence and Space to help refine the lander's design.

The ''Peregrine'' bus is largely of aluminum alloy, and it is reconfigurable for specific missions. Its propulsion system has five thrusters built by Frontier Aerospace, each producing 150 lb (667 N) thrust. This propulsion system was designed to handle the trans-lunar injection, trajectory corrections, lunar orbit insertion, and powered descent. The propulsion system can deliver an orbiter to the Moon and perform a powered soft landing.LiDAR