Washington : January and February will see the Moon landings of two US space companies supported by NASA.
With the exception of Apollo 17, which took place in December 1972, the US has not attempted a moon landing.
With the successful completion of all integration milestones, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technologies’ Peregrine lunar lander is scheduled to make history on January 8 by traveling to the Moon. United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket will carry the lander when it takes off.
On February 23, it intends to attempt the historic landing after residing in a stable orbit and completing system checkouts.
Peregrine is Astrobotic’s first lander mission, and the team plans to become the first commercial company to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
The lander carries a total of 20 payloads, or cargo, including 5 from NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
The payload teams have missions that vary from seeking indications of water-ice near the lunar surface to demonstrating a rover swarm.
The lander also has several payloads representing humanity through artwork and historical artefacts.
“If you’ve been following the lunar industry, you understand that landing on the Moon’s surface is incredibly difficult. With that said, our team has continuously surpassed expectations and demonstrated incredible ingenuity during flight reviews, spacecraft testing, and major hardware integrations,” said John Thornton, Astrobotic CEO, in a statement. “We are ready for launch, and for landing,” he added.
Another is Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which aims to launch a lander in mid-February on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The IM-1 lunar lander was first expected to lift off on November 15 from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
However, in October, company officials warned of “pad congestion” which delayed the launch to January 12.
It was again delayed due to launch pad conflicts. Both Peregrine and IM-1 are carrying commercial payloads as well as those provided by NASA through its CLPS programme under awards made in 2019.
The CLPS initiative is a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon’s surface as part of CLPS intend to lay the foundation for human missions and a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.
Meanwhile, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) moon lander is also planning to make the nation’s first-ever moon landing on January 20.
Its 2.7 metres Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), which launched on September 6 along with XRISM, a powerful X-ray space telescope, successfully entered lunar orbit on Christmas day.
If successful in making a landing, Japan will become just the fifth country to successfully soft-land on the Moon, after Russia, US, China and India.
Read More
Arctic Waters Emitting Carbon: NASA Study Reveals
