Posted on 01/09/2024 8:18:43 AM PST by Twotone
A towering new rocket has taken flight, carrying what could be the first commercial lander to touch down on the moon — and the first lunar landing mission to launch from the United States since 1972.
The Vulcan Centaur rocket, a never-before-flown model developed by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, roared to life at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 a.m. ET Monday. The launch vehicle soared through space for nearly an hour, expending its fuel as it ripped away from Earth’s gravity and sent the lunar lander, called Peregrine, on its way to the moon.
Just after 3 a.m. ET, the Peregrine spacecraft separated from the rocket and began its slow journey to the lunar surface. If all goes according to plan, the lander could touch down on the moon on February 23.
Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic Technology developed the Peregrine lander — named after the falcon that is the fastest-flying bird in the world — under a contract with NASA.
“It’s a dream … For 16 years we’ve been pushing for this moment today,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said during a webcast of the launch. “And along the way, we had a lot of hard challenges that we had to overcome and a lot of people doubted us along the way. But our team and the people that supported us believed in the mission, and they created this beautiful moment that we’re seeing today.”
The space agency paid Astrobotic $108 million to develop Peregrine and fly NASA’s science experiments to the lunar surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Ashes......................
It’s just a couple of grams. It seems to have been something like a crowd-funding campaign. Support our kickstarter and we’ll send a few grains of your loved one to the moon!
Yeah, that struck me as well, and I wondered why so long?
Human remains? Maybe that is what aliens are doing when they come to Earth. Dumping remains of aliens who paid a fortune to have their dead bodies dumped on another planet.
Female writers…sheesh…give me Aviation Week & Space Technology.
* roared to life
* soared through space
* ripped away from Earth’s gravity
* its slow journey to the lunar surface
Is she in fourth grade?
So in 1969 we sent men to the Moon in 3 days. Niw ut takes 6 weeks. What, there’s traffic slowing them down?
SpaceX doesn't make lunar landers.
FedGov needs to take lessons.
Built by a first time contractor ... on the cheap.
It's a robot. There's no benefit to sending it quickly, so they choose a "minimum energy" trajectory. When planning orbits, "minimum energy" means "maximum payload".
See #29.
Okay thanks. Makes sense now.
The first US moon landing mission in decades planned to set a world record for the slowest journey to the moon ever attempted. The mission also attempted to set a new world record to place the most number of grisly remains on the moon in a single mission.
Unfortunately, this high shooting attempting mission was a dismal disaster.
I dont know, seems like they achieved their first objective...
geez CNN you lie so much the ashes are on the centuar not on the lander..
Hoffa?
One never knows when the question is Hoffa.
He “disappeared” in 75’, just as the saga of Watergate was unraveling. Jimmy Hoffa stayed in the news for about the next two years,at least back in my city of Detroit, until the death of Elvis “knocked him off” the front pages. That was in the summer of 77’.
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