Peregrine was supposed to touch the Moon, but was unable to due to a propulsion problem. Just before rushing its mission against Earth’s atmosphere, Astrobotic Technology took a photo of the moving Earth.
After a short stay of 10 days in space, the Peregrine mission crashed on Earth. While this private lander was supposed to reach the Moon, everything was ruined just after takeoff by an unfortunate propulsion problem. Astrobotic Technology, the company that developed the mission with the support of NASA, saw its dream of gently landing Peregrine on the Moon go up in smoke. Peregrine’s mission has gone wrong.
It was around 9:30 p.m. (French time), on the evening of Thursday January 18, 2024, when the company Astrobotic lost contact with Peregrine. Presumably, the mission then crashed as planned into the Earth’s atmosphere, above the Pacific Ocean. In its latest statement about the mission, Astrobotic shared what appears to be the final photo taken by Peregrine before its crash.
Peregrine’s farewell with a crescent of Earth
The crescent visible in this photo is not lunar, but terrestrial. “ The stunning image of Earth seen from Peregrine was taken by the mission team this morning [ndlr : du 18 janvier] », Explains Astrobotic in its press release.
To achieve such a photo, the team had to try twice. The first attempt produced a saturated image, in which it was impossible to distinguish the Earth. It was therefore necessary to rotate Peregrine so that the Sun was hidden by the probe, just to the left of the Earth, “ which produced the starry effects on the vehicle and revealed the crescent of Earth “. When this photo was taken, Peregrine was approximately 48,000 km from our planet.
Peregrine’s previous selfie with Earth, sent a few days earlier, was therefore not his last. We can no longer doubt it, Astrobotic’s mission is a failure, even if the engineers did everything to extend the lifespan of Peregrine. Despite everything, NASA is not panicked by Peregrine’s failure. Other projects will learn from this aborted mission to hope to land their own lander on the Moon in 2024.
Do you want to know everything about the mobility of tomorrow, from electric cars to e-bikes? Subscribe now to our Watt Else newsletter!