Launch of American Lunar Lander… The First in Over 50 Years
An American lunar lander was launched on Monday, becoming the first since over 50 years, decades after the last moon landing mission in 1972.
The landing vehicle, belonging to Astrobotic Technology, was aboard a new rocket, the Vulcan rocket, belonging to United Launch Alliance.
The Vulcan rocket took off over the skies of Florida before dawn, putting the spacecraft on a trajectory to the moon, with the landing attempt expected on February 23, 2024.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic aims to be the first private company to successfully land on the moon, a feat achieved only by four countries. However, a company in Houston also has a ready-to-fly lunar lander that could precede it to the moon by taking a more direct path.
NASA awarded both companies millions to build lunar landers and fly them, with the private sector-owned lunar landers conducting site surveys before the arrival of astronauts while showcasing their technological and scientific experiments.
Astrobotic’s lunar lander deal with the Peregrine lander was valued at $108 million, marking the first time the United States launched a lunar landing mission since December 1972.
NASA’s new Artemis program, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology, aims to return astronauts to the moon in the next few years.
The first manned mission around the moon with four astronauts is planned, possibly by the end of this year.
The Soviet Union and the United States successfully conducted a series of moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s before temporarily halting landing operations.
China joined the elite club in 2013, and India in 2023. However, the past year also witnessed lunar lander missions from Russia and a private Japanese company, while an Israeli lunar lander failed to land on the moon in 2019.
