The first US lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed toward the moon Monday, launching private companies in a space race to make deliveries for NASA and other clients.
Astrobotic Technology’s lander aboard a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan.
Vulcan crossed the Florida sky before dawn, putting the spacecraft on a circular path to the moon that should end with a landing attempt on February 23.
The Pittsburgh company aims to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished.
But the Houston company also has a lander ready to fly, and could beat it to the lunar surface, taking a more direct route.
“First to launch. The first to land is TBD,” to be determined, said Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton.
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, 2024. AFP via Getty Images
NASA gave two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers.
The space agency wants privately owned landers to reach the place before astronauts arrive while delivering NASA’s technology and science experiments and the odds and ends for other customers. Astrobotic contract for Peregrine lander: $108 million.
The last time the US launched a moon landing mission was in December 1972.
Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket launches on its maiden flight from Cape Canaveral on January 8, 2024. REUTERS
Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, closing an era that remains NASA’s pinnacle.
The space agency’s new Artemis program – named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology – looks set to return astronauts to the lunar surface within the next few years.
The first is to fly around the moon with four astronauts, probably before the end of the year.
This illustration provided by Astrobotic Technology in 2024 depicts the landing of the moon Peregrine on the lunar surface. AP
Highlighting Monday’s moonshot was the long-delayed initial test flight of the Vulcan rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The 202-foot (61-meter) rocket is essentially an upgraded version of the highly successful Atlas V, which is being phased out along with the company’s Delta IV. Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, provided the Vulcan’s two main engines.
The Soviet Union and the US launched a string of successful moon landings in the 1960s and 70s, before putting the landings on hold.
China joined the elite club in 2013 and India in 2023.
But last year also saw landings from Russia and a private Japanese company crash landing on the moon.
An Israeli non-profit organization crashed in 2019.
People take pictures during the launch of the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance’s next generation Vulcan rocket on its maiden flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida January 8, 2024. REUTERS
Next month, SpaceX will provide an elevator for the lander from the Intuitive Machine. A more direct one-week path of the Nova-C lander could see the two spacecraft attempt to land within days or hours of each other.
The hour-long descent to the lunar surface — by far the biggest challenge — will be “exciting, nail-biting, terrifying all at once,” Thornton said.
In addition to flying experiments for NASA, Astrobotic launched its own transportation business, packing the 6-foot-tall (1.9-meter) Peregrine lander with everything from rock fragments from Mount Everest and a toy-sized car from Mexico that will launch it to the lunar surface and cruise around, to ash and the DNA of space enthusiasts, including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.
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The Navajo Nation recently requested that the launch be delayed due to human remains. saying it would be a “profound desecration” of a celestial body revered by Native Americans.
Thornton said the December protest came too late but promised to try to find “a good way forward” with the Navajo for future missions.
One of the spaceflight memorial companies that bought rooms on the lander, Celestis, said in a statement that no culture or religion owns the moon and should not be able to veto a mission.
More remains are in the upper stage of the rocket, which, once free of the lander, will circle the sun forever as far as Mars.
Cargo fares for Peregrine range from a few hundred dollars to $1.2 million per kilogram (2.2 pounds), not enough for Astrobotic to break even.
But for this first flight, that’s not the point, according to Thornton.
“A lot of people’s dreams and hopes bear this matter,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
