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Image taken by the Peregrine spacecraft: The mission ended in a fireball
Photo: - / AFP
The moon mission by the US company Astrobotic has ended in a fireball over the South Pacific.
The company said employees lost contact with the lunar lander Peregrine and were no longer able to determine its location when the flying object re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in a controlled crash.
It received confirmation from the US Department of Defense that the spacecraft was destroyed.
Around ten days ago, Astrobotic failed to successfully send off the Peregrine lander.
The US mission started successfully, but then there were problems with the propulsion system.
The engineers temporarily managed to stabilize the capsule, but the goal of a moon landing had to be abandoned.
A valve probably didn't work properly, Astrobotic boss John Thornton said at a press conference on Friday.
It would have been the first private landing on the moon.
After consultation with the US space agency Nasa, among others, Astrobotic decided to allow the capsule to crash in a controlled manner on Thursday - among other things to avoid the risk of uncontrolled space debris flying around, as Thornton said.
Astrobotic wants to start the next experiment at the end of the year: Then the “Griffin” lander should be sent to the moon, including a NASA rover on board.
The launch is currently planned for November, but the problems with “Peregrine” still need to be thoroughly investigated beforehand.
Problems also with Japan's moon mission
As of Friday evening, Japan had succeeded in its planned landing on the moon - but there were problems with the power supply.
It cannot yet be said whether the unmanned landing took place as planned within a zone of 100 meters.
If the status of a soft landing remains, Japan will be the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on Earth's satellite after the former Soviet Union, the USA, China and India.
nis/dpa/AP