No chance to make soft landing on Moon
image for illustrative purpose
New York: The US' first fully private spacecraft that aimed to put America back to the lunar terrain after about 50 year, "will not" make the historic landing on the Moon, the company has announced.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lunar l which lifted off on January 8 suffered an "anomaly", and the officials found a critical loss of propellant due to "the failure within the propulsion system".
While the mission team managed to get the lander's battery fully charged, the team updated that the lander's thrusters "could likely only operate for 40 more hours at most".
Later, the company confirmed on X that the spacecraft had, "unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon".
However, the team continues to find ways to extend Peregrine's operational life, they said.
"We are in a stable operating mode and are working payload and spacecraft tests and checkouts."
