Week 3, 2024: Peregrine Mission One Reenters the Earth's Atmosphere after Failed Moon Landing Attempt
Peregrine under construction at KSC, 2023-Nov-14
After 10 days in space, Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One met its fiery end over the South Pacific Ocean around 21:04 UTC today (Jan. 18th). Launched during Vulcan Centaur's maiden flight on 2024-Jan-8, it was the United States' first lunar landing attempt since Apollo 17 in 1972, however a propulsion system failure just six hours into flight precluded this from ever happening.
Carrying eight instruments and two rovers, the lander was supposed to arrive in lunar orbit by January 23rd, and is planned to touch down just exactly a month later on 2024-Feb-23, on an area just south of Mons Gruithuisen Gamma called Sinus Viscositatis. It is the first of many missions under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program
You can download the Peregrine Mission One add-on to view the mission's entire trajectory on Celestia from January 8-18, 2024
Source: Astrobotic Technology (Twitter/X)
Highlights for Peregrine Mission One
Official livestream of the maiden flight of Vulcan Centaur with Peregrine
The Earth and the Sun from Peregrine, 2024-Jan-18
Approximate reentry coordinates of Peregrine
View of Peregrine's landing site as imaged by NASA's Lunar Orbiter 4 spacecraft in 1967