Private US company will send another spacecraft to land on the Moon

Astrobotic's new Griffin spacecraft, whose Peregrine lunar lander burned up yesterday, is scheduled to launch to the asteroid in November.

The Vulcan Centaur rocket carrying the Peregrine lunar lander lifts off from the launch pad on January 8. Photo: William Harwood/CBS News — The Vulcan Centaur rocket carrying the Peregrine lunar lander lifts off from the launch pad on January 8. Photo: *William Harwood/CBS News*

In early January, the Peregrine spacecraft of the American private company Astrobotic launched to the Moon but encountered a fuel leak and was unable to land on the celestial body. The spacecraft remained in space for about 10 days, then fell into the atmosphere and burned up on January 19 (Hanoi time).

In his first press conference since the Peregrine mission failure, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton expressed optimism about the next mission. “I am more confident than ever that our next spacecraft will be successful and land on the lunar surface,” he said.

Thornton also highlighted the challenges the team overcame during the Peregrine mission and what they achieved. “After the anomaly, we still had victory after victory, showing that the spacecraft could still operate in space and that the payloads could still operate,” he said. The payloads Thornton was referring to were the science experiments on board, specifically those from NASA, that were collecting data.

Astrobotic's next mission, scheduled for November, will carry NASA's Viper rover to the Moon's south pole, where US astronauts plan to explore in the coming years. Viper's goal is to learn more about the origin and distribution of water—in the form of ice—and determine how this resource could be used in future missions.

Viper will be transported to the Moon on Astrobotic's Griffin lander, which is about three times larger than Peregrine. "Viper is very sophisticated and expensive. So we want to make sure we really understand the root causes and contributing factors that led to Peregrine's demise. If we need to modify the Griffin plan, we will do so," said Joel Kearns, a NASA expert.

NASA has paid Astrobotic about $100 million under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to transport scientific equipment to the moon. NASA is also working to return American astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade under the Artemis program.

Thu Thao (According to AFP )

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