(NewsNation) — NASA administrators will provide an update Tuesday afternoon on the status of the lunar landing mission that now appears to be unlikely to succeed.
Part of the Artemis program, which is dedicated to returning humans to the moon, got off to a successful start with the previously untested Vulcan Centaur launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Monday morning.
After the Peregrine lunar lander separated from the rocket, however, Atrobotic announced there had been an anomaly that prevented the craft from successfully orienting itself toward the sun to charge its battery.
After further investigation, the company determined there was a failure in the propulsion system, resulting in a critical loss of propellant. On X, formerly known as Twitter, the company said it was working to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as possible before losing power.
Given the issues, it appears unlikely that Peregrine will make a landing on the moon, where it would have become the first American spacecraft to land there since 1972 and the end of the Apollo program.
It’s also a less-than-stellar start for NASA’s first Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission, an experiment with NASA relying on private companies to produce robotic landers in exchange for lower cost.
The program is a contrast to the 1960s Apollo programs where NASA built its own landers. While more expensive for NASA, it also meant the agency had control over the development of the spacecraft rather than acting as a primary customer for private industry projects.
In addition to technical hurdles, Peregrine was also facing outcry from the Navajo Nation over the inclusion of human cremains as part of the payload. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren wrote an open letter calling the practice “desecration” as the moon plays such a critical role in the spirituality of many indigenous groups, including those of the Navajo Nation.
NASA has had an agreement to inform Navajo Nation of any human remains sent to the moon since 1999; however, the agency argued because it was a private mission, it did not have a responsibility for what other clients included on the mission.
