Peregrine is attempting to be the first commercial mission to achieve a soft moon landing
Ian Sample
My colleague, Science editor Ian Sample, teed up our coverage of the mission with this piece on Friday:
Even in the white-knuckle world of space exploration, the mission is considered risky. While Nasa has instruments aboard the robotic lander, this is a commercial operation. No private company has ever achieved a soft landing on the moon or any other celestial body.
“There’s a lot riding here,” said John Thornton, the chief executive of Astrobotic, the Pittsburgh firm leading the mission. “It’s a mix of emotions. There’s thrill and excitement, but I’m also a bit terrified because there’s a lot on the line.”
Adding to the nerves is the fact that the Vulcan rocket Peregrine sits on has never flown before, though its manufacturer, United Launch Alliance, has had a 100% mission success rate with its predecessor rockets.
Peregrine is the first mission to fly under Nasa’s commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative, a new scheme in which the space agency pays private companies to deliver scientific equipment to the moon. Peregrine carries five Nasa payloads and 15 others. One, a shoebox-sized rover from Carnegie Mellon University, is set to become the first US robot to take a spin on the moon.
Read more here: Peregrine mission almost ready for attempt to put US landers back on the moon
Key events
You can watch a live stream of the launch in this blog – you may need to refresh the page for a play button to appear.
There will now be a countdown, during which further pre-flight checks occur. T-minus seven minutes and counting …
The launch director has said “You have permission to launch” after about 30 teams gave a “Go!” when asked.
The weather report continues to say that the probability of the weather violating launch conditions is 15% during the 45-minute launch window. Ground winds are 15-20 knots, and the temperature is 14C (57F).
They will shortly begin polling the teams to get the go-ahead to start the countdown.
This might be the first launch of the Vulcan rocket, but it is the 159th launch by United Launch Alliance.
The Vulcan Centaur rocket carrying the Peregrine 1 moon lander is still on track to launch at 07:18 GMT (2.18 EST / 18.18 AEDT).
Tory Bruno, the CEO of United Launch Alliance, has said he is “so proud of our people. And I think we had exactly the best possible team.”
It is the first launch of the Vulcan rocket, and the US is attempting to land something on the moon for the first time in 50 years.
This from our graphics team shows the history of where people have successfully landed on the moon, and where the Peregrine 1 mission is aiming for …
It is worth noting again that United Launch Alliance has designated this one of two test launches of the Vulcan rocket before they can certify it as operational.
Tory Bruno, who is president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, which built the Vulcan Centaur rocket, posted this picture earlier looking up at the engines from below.
It isn’t just scientific equipment on board today’s mission, as my colleague Ian Sample noted:
Along for the ride is a copy of Wikipedia, a physical coin loaded with one bitcoin and DHL “moonboxes” carrying momentos ranging from novels and photographs to a small lump of Mount Everest. Also onboard, courtesy of the space memorial firms Elysium Space and Celestis, are cremated human remains and DNA, some of which belong to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek.
In fact, the firm putting the remains related to Star Trek into space have assembled an, if you’ll excuse the pun, stellar cast, as capsules containing the remains of Roddenberry, his wife, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, as well as original series stars James Doohan (Scotty), DeForest Kelley (McCoy) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) will be on board.
It is an interesting example of how commercial spaceflight and scientific missions are co-developing, with the high profile inclusion of Star Trek luminaries serving to advertise that being blasted into space as a memorial is also a service available, at a cost – financial and carbon – to us mere mortals.
