Founded in 2007, Astrobotic Technology Inc. is an American company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is developing robotic spacecraft to deliver payloads to the Moon. Astrobotic aims to provide affordable delivery services to governments, companies, universities, non-profits, and individuals seeking to land instruments, rovers, keepsakes, and other cargo on the lunar surface.
The company’s first mission, called Peregrine Mission One, will use the Peregrine lander to carry over 20 payloads to a large lava plain on the near side of the Moon called Lacus Mortis. With its inaugural flight, Astrobotic seeks to become the first American company to accomplish a soft landing on the Moon. The Peregrine lander stands about 6 feet tall, can carry up to 90 kg of payload mass, and is designed to survive the two-week-long lunar night by using insulation and heaters to protect itself from the severe cold.
In addition to commercial payloads, Peregrine will host five NASA instruments that aim to study the lunar environment and test new technologies ahead of future human missions to the Moon under the Artemis program. Astrobotic also has a contract with NASA to deliver the agency’s VIPER rover to the Moon’s south pole in 2024 to search for subsurface water ice.
Recent Launch and Current Status
On January 8th, 2024 at 2:18 am EST, the Peregrine lander lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket on its historic journey to the Moon. Peregrine successfully separated from the rocket approximately 14 minutes into flight and began receiving telemetry from NASA’s Deep Space Network while its onboard systems activated as expected.
However, Astrobotic then reported that Peregrine experienced an anomaly that prevented it from achieving a stable orientation with its solar panels pointed at the Sun to maintain power. Without the ability to recharge batteries and generate adequate electricity, the spacecraft cannot proceed with the mission.
As of the time of this writing on January 8th, Astrobotic’s team is actively working to diagnose and resolve the anomaly. They will provide further updates as more data is analyzed. The outcome of this effort remains uncertain, but the next several hours will be critical to assess whether Peregrine can recover or if the mission is lost.
Regardless of the fate of this first attempt, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton has stated that the company will continue working towards future missions. Their second lander, called Griffin, is slated to deliver NASA’s VIPER rover to the Moon in 2024 under a separate contract. Astrobotic also has a growing manifest of commercial customers awaiting their chance to reach the lunar surface.
Astrobotic’s History and Path to the Peregrine Mission
Astrobotic was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon University professor Red Whittaker along with a team of his robotics graduate students. The company grew out of Whittaker’s efforts to win the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize, which challenged private teams to land a rover on the Moon and complete other objectives.
Although no team ultimately claimed the full prize before it expired, Astrobotic continued to develop its lander technology and signed early deals to carry the rovers of competing teams on NASA-funded demonstration missions. When NASA later created the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to contract private companies for delivering science and technology payloads to the Moon, Astrobotic was well-positioned to bid and win contracts.
The road to launching Peregrine has not been easy or straightforward for Astrobotic. Originally, the company signed a launch contract in 2011 with SpaceX to use a Falcon 9 rocket before later switching to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch in 2019. However, more delays and a change in SpaceX’s pricing ultimately led Astrobotic to move the mission to United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket in May 2021.
On the spacecraft side, Astrobotic iterated through several design changes to accommodate larger and more complex payloads. The company worked its way through technical challenges related to software, avionics, propulsion systems, and testing flight-ready hardware. They also dealt with the difficulties of integrating the needs of multiple organizations from around the world into one mission.
In December 2023, Astrobotic completed the critical milestones of fueling Peregrine and conducting final checkouts and tests before encapsulating the spacecraft within the Vulcan Centaur fairing.
Payloads Aboard Peregrine Mission One
In total, Peregrine carries 14 payloads to the Moon spanning commercial, government, academic, and personal missions:
Commercial Payloads
- DHL MoonBox – A collection of keepsakes and mementos from participants around the world
- Lacuna Photonics – An optical communication system demonstration
- D-Orbit – An orbital transfer vehicle experiment
- Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander – A miniature landing spacecraft test
- Celestis Memorials – A payload carrying human cremated remains and DNA
Government Payloads
- 5 NASA instruments studying lunar environment, radiation, soil composition
- Mexican Space Agency – Detect subsurface water ice
- German Space Agency (DLR) – Measure lunar surface temperatures
- Seychelles Space Agency – Test hardware for future missions
Academic Payloads
- Carnegie Mellon University – Technology demonstrations
- Alba Orbital – Unicorn-2 Satellite
Peregrine also carries a time capsule provided by the Arch Mission Foundation containing a vast library of human knowledge and a lunar bitcoin provided by SpaceBit.
Looking Ahead for Astrobotic
The loss of the Peregrine spacecraft on its first attempt would deal a major setback to Astrobotic’s business and technology demonstration goals. However, the company is likely to rebound with lessons learned and continue pursuing the Griffin lander mission with VIPER rover for NASA Astrobotic also has plans to develop larger landers after Griffin to carry more substantial payloads to the Moon for a growing pool of customers.
Astrobotic aims to prove that its spacecraft can provide reliable and affordable delivery services to the Moon for all manner of customers, from space agencies to universities, companies, and individuals. If the company realizes this vision, it would help usher in a new era of expanded access and commercial activity on the lunar surface. The Peregrine lander was envisioned as the first step on this long-term pathway that could see multiple Astrobotic spacecraft carrying out lunar missions every year.
Regardless of what happens in the coming days, Astrobotic has been a pioneer in commercial lunar transportation over nearly two decades. The company placed an early bet on the emergence of the moon economy and has brought tremendous innovation, technology development, and partnerships. Win or lose on this particular mission, Astrobotic has positioned itself well strategically to capitalize on humanity’s resurgent interest in one of our closest companions in the solar system – Earth’s Moon.