WASHINGTON — Astrobotic’s first lunar lander is prepared for a launch in early January that will arrange a landing on the moon in late February.
The Pittsburgh-based company announced Dec. 19 that its Peregrine lunar lander has accomplished all its pre-launch integration activities, which include fueling the lander and mating it with the payload adapter for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. That, together with preparations for the rocket itself, arrange a launch attempt as soon as Jan. 8 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Astrobotic had hoped to launch Peregrine this month, with a launch period of Dec. 24 to 26 enabling a Jan. 25 landing attempt. Nonetheless, ULA postponed the launch to finish a wet dress rehearsal that was interrupted by problems with ground systems in early December. ULA said Dec. 14 that it accomplished the dress rehearsal and confirmed a Jan. 8 launch date.
Peregrine is carrying 20 business and government payloads, including five provided by NASA as a part of its Business Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The non-NASA payloads range from a small lunar rover developed by Carnegie Mellon University and a set of even smaller rovers from the Mexican Space Agency to commemorative and memorial payloads from firms and organizations.
Five other NASA instruments originally manifested on Peregrine were taken off the lander earlier this 12 months. Chris Culbert, NASA CLPS program manager, said at a Nov. 29 briefing that call was linked to the performance of the lander and the descent engines available for it.
“Quite than delay this mission further to attend on additional engine development, we worked with Astrobotic to agree on getting a very powerful payloads delivered as early as possible,” he said. “We did jointly conform to demanifest a handful of payloads from the primary mission to enable that first mission to be more prone to succeed.” Those payloads shall be flown on later CLPS missions.
“For those who’ve been following the lunar industry, you understand landing on the Moon’s surface is incredibly difficult. With that said, our team has constantly surpassed expectations and demonstrated incredible ingenuity” throughout the lander’s development, said John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, in an announcement. “We’re ready for launch, and for landing.”
A launch within the window that opens Jan. 8 would arrange a landing on Feb. 23, Astrobotic stated. Quite than go on to the lunar surface, the spacecraft will enter lunar orbit , lowering the apolune, or high point in its orbit, from 9,000 kilometers to 100 kilometers. “More often than not between launch and landing is waiting for the local lighting to be correct,” Thornton said on the Nov. 29 briefing.
That implies that Peregrine might be the primary CLPS mission to launch but not the primary to land. Intuitive Machines is planning a launch of its IM-1 lunar lander mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 between Jan. 12 and 16. That mission will take a more direct approach to the moon, organising a landing either Jan. 19 to 21.
While Intuitive Machines has said preparations for IM-1 remain on target, the mission could face a launch delay. The launch must happen from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, which is the one SpaceX pad at Cape Canaveral equipped to fuel the lander with liquid oxygen and methane propellants shortly before launch.
Nonetheless, LC-39A is currently set as much as support the Falcon Heavy launch of the X-37B military spaceplane, whose launch has slipped to no sooner than Dec. 28 due to launch vehicle issues. It takes around three weeks to reconfigure the pad for Falcon 9 launches, meaning that it will not be ready in time to support the IM-1 launch before the January launch period closes.