Anomaly Occurs, Astrobotic Loses Contact With Peregrine Moon Lander

Peregrine lander for CLPS initiative has a problem (photo: dock. ULA)

JAKARTA A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Rocket managed to launch from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida on Monday, January 8 at 14:18 WIB.

In accordance with the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, this rocket carries an Astrobotic-made Peregrine lander to land on the Moon. About 50 minutes after launch, the rotary rocket was successfully separated from the Peregrine lander.

Initially, Peregrine was active and connected to Astrobotic ground communications at the Mission Control Center. This lander was supposed to fly for 46 days, but it looks like the flight will not run smoothly as expected.

About seven hours after launch, Astrobotic announced that the Peregrine lander was anomalous after the propulsion system activation. Astrobotic flight was disrupted due to the problem.

After the propulsion system activation was successful, Peregrine entered full operational conditions. Unfortunately, there was an anomaly that prevented Astrobotic from reaching a stable orientation leading to the Sun," the Astrobotic team said via their official social media.

Astrobotic continues to analyze data and monitor developments from Peregrine and the results are not so good. The private company estimates that anomalies in propulsion will disrupt Peregrine's Moon landing.

The reason is, when technicians tried to solve the problem, the Peregrine battery actually decreased and reached its lowest operational level. Shortly after, communication was cut off and Astrobotic could not contact their lander.

The team developed and carried out improvising maneuvers to redirect solar panels towards the Sun. Shortly after this maneuver, the spacecraft entered a period of communication loss, the Astrobotic team explained.

Currently, the company is still trying to fix problems with the Peregrine propulsion. They will continue to contact Peregrine and will provide further information after Peregrine is seen from stations on Earth.