![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20231031-Peregrine-arrives-small.jpg)
The primary payload teed up for NASA’s industry-led missions to the Moon has arrived in Florida. Astrobotic announced on Halloween that its Peregrine lunar lander was unpacked inside a clean room on the Space Coast after leaving Astrobotic’s facilities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
The mission will likely be the primary for each Astrobotic and its ride to space, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. President and CEO Tory Bruno said in a tweet on Tuesday that the launch time on Dec. 24 is 1:49 am EST (0649 UTC).
“It’s incredibly thrilling. We’ve been talking about this mission for 16 years as a company, our first mission to the Moon, and now it’s finally here,” said Dan Hendrickson, Astrobotic’s Vice President of Business Development. “The team is exhilarated, anxious to get off the launchpad and able to fly. So really, it’s a dream come true now that we’re here.”
Hendrickson spoke with Spaceflight Now on the sidelines of the American Astronautical Society’s von Braun Space Exploration Symposium on Oct. 27, the day that the Peregrine lander hit the road to go all the way down to Florida.
Hendrickson said it should be a reasonably straightforward process for them to get to launch, now that they’re within the Sunshine State. He said teams with Astrobotic have been working with ULA for months concerning the fueling steps, transportation to ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility and integration on top of the Centaur 5 upper stage.
“We built Peregrine in a 100k-class cleanroom in accordance with our standards for cleanliness for the spacecraft. And so, we’ve maintained that environment because it’s transiting and thru the encapsulation process,” Hendrickson said. “That process and that flow has been maintained and can proceed to be maintained through the launch.”
.@astrobotic‘s Peregrine lunar lander is on the road to Florida. It left the clean room adjoining to the @MoonshotMuseum in Pittsburgh this morning.
We spoke with VP of Business Development Dan Hendrickson concerning the lander’s journey to the pad and launch NET Dec. 24.
Watch here: pic.twitter.com/W57gwonDtl
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) October 27, 2023
Peregrine’s path to the Moon
After Vulcan lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and separates from the rocket, Hendrickson said step one is to power up while it flies on its first phasing loop heading out to a lunar distance.
“So, that provides us a chance to envision out the vehicle, understand its performance, because it’s the primary time it’s flying in space,” Hendrickson said. “It can come back across the Earth. It’ll slingshot after which exit to satisfy the Moon where it should be at that time.”
Hendrickson said from there, Peregrine will perform a lunar orbit insertion burn to maneuver right into a highly-elliptical orbit. Following that, it should enter right into a less elliptical orbit after which finally, circularize right into a 100 by 100 kilometer ellipse.
The spacecraft will remain in that orbit “until the lunar lighting conditions are excellent.”
“We would like to land within the early morning on the landing site. And so, we’ll wait for those lighting conditions to line up,” Hendrickson said. “After which, we’ll begin to make the powered descent down the surface.”
Hendrickson said since the lander uses as hypergolic (liquids that react spontaneously upon contact with one another) propulsion system, they’re capable of linger on this circular orbit before ultimately starting the powered descent sequence.
“We don’t have any issues with any of the propellant outgassing away over time and so, it gives us quite a little bit of flexibility,” he said. “We’ll be high-quality so far as waiting for any form of lighting conditions. The total opportunities and launch windows that we’ve got available to us will allow us to linger so long as we want to ultimately for the vehicle.”
![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Peregrine-flight-trajectory.jpg)
In a nominal scenario, Hendrickson said it might take between 30 to 39 days from launch to landing on the Moon. Assuming ULA is capable of launch during their December window, which runs from Dec. 24-26, that might arrange a landing around late January 2024.
When asked whether a special launch and landing strategy was considered to permit for a bigger launch window every month, Hendrickson said this was their most suitable choice.
“We worked with ULA to maximise all of the available opportunities. We desired to be certain that that Peregrine has the very best possible probability to succeed on its strategy to the surface and provides it the very best possible window to land,” Hendrickson said. “So, we worked very closely with them over the time that we’ve been on contract together. It’s been a terrific working relationship and we found the sweet spot.”
The Peregrine lander is ready to the touch down at Sinus Viscositatis, which translates to “Bay of Stickiness.” It’s situated at 35.25 degrees North and 40.99 degrees West on the Moon.
Hendrickson said one in all their partners, DHL, helps with sharing their journey to the Moon and said the landing can be live-streamed.
Kicking off CLPS
Due to the delayed launch date of Intuitive Machines’ launch of its Nova-C lander, the Peregrine-1 mission will likely be the primary to launch under NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Just like the Industrial Crew Program, NASA will likely be a paying customer and can hitch a ride with various payloads on board industrial landers which are heading to the Moon.
If it holds its launch date though, the IM-1 mission should arrive on the Moon’s surface barely before Peregrine-1 touches down.
Once it’s on the surface, Hendrickson said Peregrine is designed to operate for roughly eight to 10 days. They’re carrying 21 payloads onboard, that are a mixture of economic and government items.
Astrobotic was awarded one in all the primary task orders under the CLPS program back in 2019, which was valued at $79.5 million. It was dubbed Task Order 2 – AB (TO2-AB) by the agency. Originally, it was going to hold as much as 14 NASA payloads, of which ten that were considered later in development. Nevertheless, five were shifted to future CLPS missions, in accordance with an April 2023 update from NASA.
The five remaining NASA payloads are from following Ames Research Center (ARC) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Johnson Space Center (JSC):
- Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) – GSFC
- Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS) – JSC
- Near InfraRed Volatiles Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) – ARC
- Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) – ARC
- Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) – GSFC/European Space Agency
Peregrine-1 can even transport the Iris rover built by Carnegie Mellon University, which is poised to develop into the primary American lunar robot sent to the Moon.
![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Iris-rover-small.jpg)
One other payload onboard will likely be a technology demonstration called the Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) sensor, which was developed through a $10 million NASA Tipping Point contract in partnership with JSC, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Moog.
“We’re in a GPS-denied environment and so, that sensor is something that we’ve got come to understand because the very starting of our program, that we wanted to develop that in house. That’s an incredibly vital capability that we want to have for our landers,” Hendrickson said. “It’s a chance to check the hardware and in addition the algorithms that can discover key features visually to assist the spacecraft understand where it’s in space in relation to the Moon.”
He said they won’t be counting on the TRN to soundly land with this primary mission, which can allow it to be primarily a tech demonstration. Astrobotic’s second Moon mission, using their larger Griffin lander, will need that capability though, because it’s making a rather more precise landing on the Moon’s South Pole.
“We’ll take performance of that sensor, the information and the complete performance that it operates on Peregrine. We’ll learn from that and apply lessons learned then for Griffin for that sensor, which can then be within the loop and be relied upon for that precise landing ellipse,” Hendrickson said.
The Griffin lander is ready to launch in November 2024 and can carry NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) payload. While they’re two various kinds of landers, Hendrickson said the event of every has helped inform items on the opposite.
“We attempt to have commonality between our landers as much as possible and what I’ve been heartened to watch in my time that we’ve been executing on Peregrine and Griffin is watching the teachings learned actually between each programs over time,” Hendrickson said. “They may look very different, they’re carrying different payloads, but ultimately, they’re each lunar lander missions.”
Learning lessons for Artemis too
Astrobotic shouldn’t be only concerned with landing science and robotic missions on the Moon, but eventually people as well. The corporate is one in all the six corporations involved within the Blue Origin-led National Team, which is developing a crewed lander as a part of NASA’s Human Landing System program.
The TRN that will likely be tested and developed using Peregrine and Griffin can even factor into the Blue Moon lander’s guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system.
“Now we have organically been developing our own mapping tool for the Moon for years now. So, we’re really excited to assist Blue Origin by providing the tools and the background experience that we’ve got,” Hendrickson said. “Actually, we’ll be sharing lessons learned that we’ve got from this mission as much as possible with the National Team. We’re also helping on the cargo accommodation system for the long run.”
He noted that while they’re optimistic with this primary landing attempt, spaceflight shouldn’t be a straightforward thing and that “the Moon is a harsh mistress, as they are saying.”
“If there are any issues along the best way, we are going to learn from them and we are going to proceed. This can be a program that’s built for the long run. We’re here to remain,” Hendrickson said. “We’re really excited to follow up with multiple missions in the long run. So, every flight is a learning opportunity, success or failure, doesn’t matter. And we plan to actually learn from the mission and improve our future missions with all the information and experience that we gain.”
“But again, we’re feeling really good. We’ve been doing numerous mission simulations over the previous few months, practicing all of the operations on the strategy to the Moon: the actual power descent, then the payload operations on the surface,” he added. “We feel ready, we feel confident and we’re excited to go.”
When #VulcanRocket launches on its inaugural flight, almost half of the thrust to depart Space Launch Complex-41 comes from a pair of GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters. Today, the primary solid rocket booster was installed for the #Cert1 mission in our #CountdowntoVulcan. pic.twitter.com/2ueXWmXacM
— ULA (@ulalaunch) October 31, 2023