by A pair of companies are planning to launch unmanned spacecraft to the moon within weeks of each other early next year in a NASA-funded effort that could mark the first U.S. soft landings on the lunar surface since the last of the Apollo missions in 1972.
But in a sign of how the commercial space industry is transforming exploration, companies are also vying for another historic first: becoming the first private company to land on the moon.
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On Jan. 8, Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh-based company, plans to launch its Peregrine spacecraft in the inaugural launch of the Vulcan rocket, operated by United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Then, in mid-February, from another pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida, Intuitive Machines will launch its lander on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The missions are related to NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface. But these missions are part of an effort called the Commercial Lunar Cargo Services program, which aims to send cargo and scientific experiments to the moon. In announcing the program five years ago, then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he wanted to leverage the capabilities of private industry to implement it quickly and cheaply. “What we’re looking for here is speed,” he said at the time.
Several companies are eligible to compete for contracts worth $2.6 billion over 10 years. And after years of delays, the first missions are finally underway, with more to come.
“This is an exciting time,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in an interview. “These guys can become explorers for the astronauts that we’re going to take to the moon. And we can learn things about the moon that we otherwise couldn’t have learned because we wouldn’t be able to have as many landings.”
It’s unclear which company would land first. Astrobotic said in a statement that if it launches as scheduled on January 8, its spacecraft would land on February 23. An Intuitive Machines spokesperson said the company expects to land “approximately seven days after launch.” Its launch date was scheduled for January 12, but was delayed to mid-February because “unfavorable weather conditions caused changes to SpaceX’s launch manifest.” The company has not yet released an exact launch or landing date.
The missions come as several nations have sent spacecraft to the moon in recent years. And the Japanese space agency expects its robotic lander, which launched on September 7, to land on January 19. That would make it the fifth country to soft-land on the moon and would come just months after India successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. the lunar surface in August.
But landing on the moon is risky and many have tried and failed in the past. Earlier this year, ispace, a Japanese company, lost a spacecraft while trying to land on the moon. Russia also lost a spacecraft attempting a moon landing this year.
In recent years, China has sent a fleet of spacecraft to the Moon, starting with orbiters in 2007 and again in 2010. Then in 2013, it landed the Chang’e 3 spacecraft on the moon, becoming the first nation to make a landing. soft on the Moon since The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
In early 2019, China made history by landing the first spacecraft on the far side of the Moon. And in 2020 it brought back samples from the lunar surface in another impressive demonstration of its growing ambitions.
Under the Artemis program, NASA intends to land astronauts on the moon in the coming years, perhaps as early as 2025, but probably later. After successfully sending the Orion spacecraft without anyone on board around the moon last year, it is planning a lunar flyby mission with astronauts. It was initially scheduled for late next year, but Nelson said the schedule could be pushed back to 2025. “They’re going through all kinds of testing,” he said, adding that the space agency intends to provide a schedule update “early.” of the New Year.”
But before that, NASA hopes to conduct several robotic landings to help pave the way. In addition to the two scheduled for early this year, NASA plans to send its first robotic rover to the Moon on an astrobotic spacecraft. Called VIPER (for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover), the golf cart-sized vehicle would be equipped with a drill to search for water in the form of ice near the lunar south pole.
“If all this works, what an amazing tool to support humans on the surface of the Moon, but also to carry out exciting scientific and commercial activities in ways that would not otherwise be possible,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, former head of the NASA’s scientific division, who oversaw the program.
Still, he said, the approach of partnering with the commercial sector for such missions “needs to be tested,” and landing on the Moon is an incredibly difficult task. The chances of a successful landing on any mission, he estimated, are about 50 percent. But having two companies working at the same time increases the chances of an American spacecraft reaching the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, recently told reporters that he was well aware of the risks. “It’s certainly a huge challenge,” he said. “I mean, I’m going to be terrified and excited at the same time at every stage.”
While he said there is a competition to get to the moon first, he said the main goal is to “create a commercial delivery movement to the surface. The most important and top priority of that is the success of the industry. That’s the position astrobotics since day “We need this industry to succeed. “We need this program to be successful.”
Another challenge is that its Peregrine spacecraft will launch on the first flight of ULA’s Vulcan rocket. While the first launch of any rocket is risky, Thornton said ULA has “a really stellar track record of success and we have a lot of confidence.”
Intuitive Machines is also confident.
“The vehicle is ready,” Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, said in an interview in October. “It’s working beautifully… We know the odds we’re up against. We’ve done extensive testing beyond development testing, to make sure the vehicle is performing as designed. And we’re confident that coming out of our test “The reviews indicate that we have solved all those problems and that we know how the vehicle behaves.”
Being in the position to return the United States to the Moon “is a heavy burden that we take very seriously as a business,” he said. “We learned all the lessons learned from all the other attempts that came before us. In the end, someone will break that barrier and be the first commercial company to do it. And that the first commercial company is an American one. I think this company is fantastic.”
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