Writers on the Moon is a time capsule of 125 authors' works (plus their stowaways' works) that was onboard the Peregrine Lunar Lander.
Peregrine was the first American Moon Lander to launch in 50 years! Although it didn't go as planned, we will always be a part of that bit of space history.
Peregrine Lander Timeline of Events:
January 8th, 2024, 2:18am EST:
- The United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket carrying the Peregrine lander launched 1/8/2024 at 2:18am from Cape Canaveral, FL.
Check out the launch here.
- After successfully separating from the rocket, Peregrine experienced an anomaly that impacted Astrobotic's ability to maintain a sun-pointing orientation.
- The team at Astrobotic executed an improvised maneuver to reorient the lander's solar array toward the Sun. All the while, the lander's battery was reaching operationally low levels.
- The maneuver to reorient the solar array toward the sun was successful, and Astrobotic's team began charging the battery.
- Astrobotic confirmed that a failure in the propulsion system caused a critical loss of propellant, meaning there would be no way to safely land on the moon. The goal was to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as possible.
January 9th, 2024:
- However, despite the team at Astrobotic overcoming another instanced when Peregrine tilted away from the sun and had to be reoriented again, and the batteries being fully charged, it became clear there would be no moon landing.
- Astrobotic operated Peregrine as a spacecraft and was able to use all 9 the scientific payloads onboard to gather data and perform experiments, as well as prove operational capability in space.
January 12th, 2024:
- Peregrine reached lunar distance at about 238,000 miles from Earth. The spacecraft was steadily losing fuel, though.
January 13th, 2024:
- Peregrine was on a path back to Earth.
January 14th, 2024:
- NASA and Astrobotic agreed to let Peregrine burn up during re-entry in Earth's atmosphere to protect our satellites and prevent space debris.
January 18th, 2024, 4:40pm EST:
- Re-entry location over a remote area in the South Pacific.
