- Kenya airport whistleblower fears for his life
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- With 118 dead from Hurricane Helene, Biden defends US government response
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- US port officials gird for strike as labor talks stay stuck
- As toll crosses 100, Trump puts Hurricane Helene at election center stage
- US Fed Chair sees 'further disinflation' in economy
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- Officials see no shortages from likely US port strike
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- China stocks soar on stimulus, but US and Europe retreat
- 100 dead in storm Helene damage, flooding across US southeast
- China stocks soar on stimulus, Europe slides on automaker woes
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- More than 60 dead from storm Helene as rescue, cleanup efforts grow
- Dozens missing, 9 dead in migrant boat wreck off Spanish Canaries
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- Storm Helene's toll rises as rescue and cleanup efforts gain pace
- SpaceX launches mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding as cleanup begins
- SpaceX set to launch mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding
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- US hurricane deaths rise to 44, fears of more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Global stocks mostly rise, cheering Beijing stimulus
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- Global stocks rise on rate hopes, Beijing stimulus
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Doomed US lunar lander's space odyssey continues...for now
Is it the little spaceship that could?
A private US lunar lander that's been hemorrhaging fuel since an onboard explosion at the start of its journey is somehow still chugging along, snapping selfies and running science instruments as it continues its journey through space.
Though Astrobotic, the company that built the Peregrine robot, has said a controlled touchdown on the Moon is no longer possible, it hasn't ruled out a so-called "hard landing" or crash -- a prospect that has space watchers gripped.
"Peregrine has now been operating in space for more than 4 days," Astrobotic said in its latest update posted on X on Friday, adding it remained "stable and operational."
The rate of fuel loss has steadily diminished as the pressure inside its tank drops, meaning the company has been able to extend the spacecraft's life far longer than it initially thought possible.
Meanwhile, the US, German and Mexican space agencies have been able to power on the scientific instruments they wanted to run on the Moon.
"Measurements and operations of the NASA-provided science instruments on board will provide valuable experience, technical knowledge, and scientific data to future CLPS lunar deliveries," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration for NASA.
Commercial Lunar Payload Services is the experimental NASA program under which the space agency paid Astrobotic more than $100 million to ship its hardware of Peregrine, as part of a strategy to seed a commercial lunar economy and reduce its own overheads.
Astrobotic is the third private entity to have failed in a soft landing, following an Israeli nonprofit and a Japanese company.
- 'Shots on goal' -
Though it hasn't worked out this time, NASA officials have made clear their strategy of "more shots on goal" means more chances to score, and the next attempt, by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, launches in February.
Astrobotic itself will get another chance in November with its Griffin lander transporting NASA's VIPER rover to the lunar south pole.
For now, the Pittsburgh-based company is staying tight-lipped on Peregrine's intended destination, leaving enthusiasts to make their own calculations.
Amateur astronomer Tony Dunn used publicly available data provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to plot out the spaceship's current course, posting a graphic on social media platform X showing it would collide with the Moon on January 23.
But "it's really anybody's guess as to what is actually going to happen because of the leaking fuel," which could easily push it off course, he told AFP.
Or, Astrobotic could intentionally point Peregrine another way, such as flying by the Moon and shooting for interplanetary space.
While a hard lunar landing might satisfy some of Astrobotic's clients, such as those flying human ashes and DNA to the Moon, it could anger others like the Navajo Nation, which had called that cargo a "desecration" of the celestial body.
"I think it would be a shame if they completed their failed mission by littering the surface of the Moon with debris," Justin Walsh, a professor of art history, archaeology, and space studies at USC told AFP, adding that humanity had left some 180 tons of material on the surface since the first Soviet impactor crashed in 1959.
Y.Jeong--CPN