Peregrine spacecraft, the private lunar lander launched by Astrobotic, may have failed to make a soft landing on the Moon, but made news for each day it was in the space. The journey will soon come to an end the spacecraft is likely to enter Earth’s atmosphere in a matter of few hours.
It is estimated to enter the atmosphere at 2100 GMT on January 18 ( 0230 IST on January 19). The intense friction with the atmosphere will cause the spacecraft to burn up, while what remains of it will fall into the southern Pacific ocean.
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“Astrobotic has positioned the Peregrine spacecraft for a safe, controlled re-entry to Earth over a remote area of the South Pacific,” said an update from the company on January 17.
“The team has been continuously monitoring our re-entry analysis with NASA,” said Astrobotic. It added that its estimates have revealed “no anticipated hazards.”
The mission
Peregrine was launched on January 8 by Vulcan Centaur, the new rocket from United Launch Alliance. The spacecraft carried 20 payloads for a number of customers, one of them NASA. The US space agency put five scientific experiments on Peregrine through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Peregrine is also carrying human and animal remains, an issue which was a matter of controversy.
It was planned that the spacecraft would deliver the payloads to the lunar surface next month. But a fuel leak doomed the mission.
The leak, which was detected soon after the lift-off dashed all hopes of a lunar landing. But the spacecraft remained operational and Astrobatic, along with NASA, put it on a safe collision course with Earth.
To put Peregrine on best possible trajectory to crash into the Earth, Astrobotic performed 23 small burns with the engine.
“Secondly, we adjusted the spacecraft’s altitude so the force induced by the leaking propellant shifted us towards the South Pacific Ocean,” said Astrobotic.
(With inputs from agencies)
