Peregrine Lander Burns Up in Atmosphere

The race to return the United States to the lunar surface took a detour in early 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, intended to be the first American spacecraft to touch down on the Moon in over 50 years, ended its mission by burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. While the result was a loss of hardware, the mission provided critical data for the future of commercial space exploration.

The Mission and the Malfunction

The mission began with high hopes on January 8, 2024. The Peregrine lander launched atop the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the maiden flight for the Vulcan Centaur, and the launch itself was flawless. The rocket successfully deployed the lander into its initial trajectory toward the Moon.

However, trouble struck just hours after separation. Astrobotic engineers detected a propulsion anomaly. The spacecraft struggled to point its solar panels toward the sun, which is necessary to keep its batteries charged. While the team successfully reoriented the spacecraft to regain power, they discovered a critical fuel leak.

Analysis revealed that a valve between the helium pressurant and the oxidizer failed to reseat. This caused a rush of high-pressure helium into the oxidizer tank, raising the pressure until the tank ruptured. With propellants leaking into space, a soft landing on the Moon became impossible.

A Ten-Day Battle in Space

Despite the catastrophic failure of the primary mission objective, the Astrobotic team did not give up. For over ten days, mission control in Pittsburgh fought to keep the spacecraft alive. They managed to stabilize the vehicle and extend its life far beyond initial estimates given the rate of the leak.

During this time, the team achieved several secondary victories:

Payload Activation: All 10 active payloads requiring power were successfully turned on.
Data Collection: NASA and other customers received data from instruments designed to measure radiation and the chemical environment of space.
Distance Travelled: The lander reached lunar distance, traveling as far as 242,000 miles from Earth, though it did not enter lunar orbit.

This phase demonstrated the resilience of the operations team. They improvised solutions to maintain attitude control using the spacecraft’s attitude control thrusters, fighting against the force of the leaking propellant.

The Decision to Re-enter Earth's Atmosphere

As the propellant levels reached critical lows, Astrobotic faced a difficult decision. The spacecraft was on a trajectory that could potentially leave it drifting in cislunar space, creating a hazard for future satellites and missions.

In consultation with NASA and the U.S. government, Astrobotic made the responsible choice to end the mission safely. They maneuvered the Peregrine lander to crash back into Earth’s atmosphere. This ensured the debris would not threaten satellites in orbit or people on the ground.

On January 18, 2024, around 4:04 p.m. ET, the Peregrine lander re-entered the atmosphere over a remote area of the South Pacific Ocean. Telemetry was lost, and the spacecraft disintegrated due to the intense heat of re-entry.

What Was Lost: Historic and Scientific Payloads

The destruction of the Peregrine lander meant the loss of a unique collection of cargo. The manifest included a mix of scientific instruments, cultural archives, and memorials.

NASA Scientific Instruments: NASA was a primary customer through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The agency had five payloads on board, including:

Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS): Designed to study the lunar exosphere.
Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS): Intended to search for indicators of water ice.
Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS): A radiation monitor.

Memorial Spaceflights: Celestis, a company that launches cremated remains into space, had two capsules on board. The “Tranquility Flight” contained DNA or ashes from:

Gene Roddenberry: The creator of Star Trek.
Original Cast Members: Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and James Doohan (Scotty).
Historical Figures: Hair samples containing DNA from George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy.

Other Items:

A physical Bitcoin.
A piece of Mount Everest.
The “MoonBox” from DHL containing mementos from around the world.

The Risks of Privatized Spaceflight

The failure of the Peregrine mission highlights the immense difficulty of lunar landings. To date, only government agencies from the United States, Russia, China, India, and Japan have successfully soft-landed on the Moon. The commercial sector is still learning.

This mission was part of NASA’s CLPS initiative. Under this model, NASA acts as a customer rather than the manufacturer. The goal is to spur a competitive commercial economy in space. By buying “delivery services” to the Moon, NASA accepts higher risks in exchange for significantly lower costs and faster development timelines compared to traditional government-run missions.

NASA officials publicly supported Astrobotic following the failure. Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA, noted that “spaceflight is a bold adventure” and praised Astrobotic for their transparency and the data they were able to salvage.

What Comes Next for Astrobotic?

Astrobotic is already looking forward. The failure of the Peregrine mission provided hard-won data that will inform their next major project: the Griffin lander.

Griffin is a significantly larger spacecraft designed to carry NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) to the lunar south pole. The lessons learned from the propulsion failure on Peregrine are being directly applied to the Griffin design to prevent a recurrence. Specifically, the valve and tank pressurization systems are under intense review to ensure the reliability of the next attempt.

While Peregrine did not reach the lunar surface, it successfully tested the Vulcan Centaur rocket and proved the capabilities of Astrobotic’s mission control. The era of commercial lunar exploration has had a rocky start, but the industry continues to iterate and move forward.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did they crash the lander into Earth instead of leaving it in space? Leaving a dead spacecraft drifting in space creates space junk. This debris poses a collision risk to satellites, the International Space Station, and future launches. Burning it up in the atmosphere over the ocean is the standard safety procedure for disposing of spacecraft.

Did any of the ashes or DNA survive the re-entry? No. The heat generated during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere is intense enough to vaporize the aluminum structure of the spacecraft and its contents. The payloads disintegrated along with the lander.

How much did this mission cost NASA? NASA paid Astrobotic approximately $108 million for the delivery service. While this is a significant amount, it is a fraction of the cost of a traditional NASA-built mission, which can run into the billions.

Was the launch rocket at fault? No. The Vulcan Centaur rocket, built by United Launch Alliance (ULA), performed perfectly. It delivered the Peregrine lander to the exact trajectory required. The failure occurred within the lander’s own propulsion system after it had separated from the rocket.