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A US spacecraft launched last week to try to land on the Moon has ended its mission in flames over the Pacific. Peregrine One suffered a propulsion fault that scuppered any prospect of a lunar touch-down and it was commanded to destroy itself instead. The private operator, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, directed the craft into Earth's atmosphere to burn up. A tracking station in Canberra, Australia, confirmed loss of signal with Peregrine at 20:59 GMT. Little or no remains of Peregrine were expected to survive intact to the ocean surface. And even if they did, they should have impacted far away from...

When Pennsylvania-based aerospace company Astrobotic launches its lander to the Moon within the next couple of years, a four-wheeled robot no bigger than a toaster will be along for the ride. The robotic rover, built by Carnegie Mellon University, will help test just how small rovers can get and still survive on the Moon’s surface.Last week, NASA awarded Astrobotic a contract of $79.5 million to carry up to 14 NASA-sponsored payloads on its lander, named Peregrine. Along with those, the lander will carry another 14 from other commercial companies, research organizations, and space agencies. That’s a total of 28 payloads...

NASA says it will spend more than $250 million hiring private companies to transport scientific missions to the moon. These privately operated missions, part of the US space agency’s broader rush back to the moon, are designed to gather data about the lunar surface and pilot technologies for landing robotic explorers. Three companies—Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and Orbit Beyond—have been awarded contracts for missions into 2021. Orbit Beyond has the earliest target date for its mission, in September 2020.

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, once considered a frontrunner for Google’s $20 million Lunar XPRIZE until it withdrew from competition last December citing unrealistic deadlines, announced recently that it has chosen United Launch Alliance as its partner for a planned moon landing in 2019—the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. While the selection of a ULA Atlas V rocket as Astrobotic’s taxi service to geosynchronous Earth orbit is new, the remainder of the plan has been in place for some time: Astrobotic’s Peregrine landing craft will take three to six months to ride the gravitational fields of Earth, the moon, and sun, then make...

Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM) and Astrobotic Technology Inc. are pleased to announce a joint effort to facilitate the development and delivery of the first payload from Latin America to the Moon. Astrobotic and AEM have entered into an agreement outlining a commitment by both organizations to enable a Mexican payload to the Moon. Through this partnership, AEM will take its first step to another planetary body. "Opening access to the Moon is precisely at the core of Astrobotic's mission," said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic. "AEM's rising space science and exploration community is yet one more example of the immense...

John Thornton is CEO of Astrobotic Technology. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. When the XPRIZE Foundation announced the Google Lunar XPRIZE in 2007, Astrobotic Technology chairman Red Whittaker declared his intention to compete on the first day. Since then, we have worked methodically on the technology and operations for the $20 million Grand Prize. We have approached this from the outset as an opportunity to build a business. With only a few lunar landings since Apollo, there remains a deep cultural belief that they are extraordinarily difficult and expensive. Bold, risky pursuits are called...

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