Astrobotic discusses ‘wild adventure’ after Peregrine returns to earth

PITTSBURGH — Astrobotic officials on Friday addressed the rollercoaster of events that ultimately led to its lunar lander redirecting to Earth.

“What a wild adventure we were just on,” company CEO John Thornton said. “Certainly not the outcome we were hoping for and challenging right up front, but, man, got really exciting through the course of it.”

Thornton explained that the launch of the Peregrine went just as planned, but from there, the mission took unexpected turns.

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“We were coming from the highest high of a perfect launch, and came down to the lowest low.”

That low presented as a propulsion anomaly.

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Thornton told reports that as valves were opening, a “rush of helium” was somehow sent into the oxidizer side.

On top of that, the lunar lander was quickly losing battery life. The team, however, was able to sort out that issue while navigating future challenges. With advice from NASA considered, the Astrobotic team maneuvered the peregrine to return to Earth.

Based on the team’s data, it’s believed that the lunar lander reentered Earth’s atmosphere safely, burning up, over the South Pacific around 4 p.m. Thursday. When asked if the reentry was confirmed, officials said that they had reached out to “government entities” to see what their data showed, but that no confirmation had been received at the time of the news conference.

A representative for NASA, Joel Kearns, was among several others to speak.

Kearns stated that NASA shares “Astrobotic’s disappointment” over the failed moon landing, but added that “breakthrough innovation doesn’t tend to take place as a progressively positive series of events. Failure is often part of the road to success.

Moving forward, Thornton said that they’ll be closely analyzing the anomaly to determine what exactly happened, along with assembling a review board.

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