Space & Astronomy

Private firm set to land on the Moon in 2019

By T.K. Randall
July 27, 2017

Image: Full Moon
Credit: Gregory H. Revera / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) The Pittsburgh-based firm, which bowed out of Google's Lunar XPRIZE last year, will be launching its lunar lander atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket sometime in 2019.

"Astrobotic is thrilled to select a ULA launch vehicle as the means to get Peregrine to the Moon," said CEO John Thornton. "By launching with ULA, Astrobotic can rest assured our payload customers will ride on a proven launch vehicle with a solid track record of success."

The lander will be carrying 35 kilograms of payload on its initial flight however there are plans to ramp this up significantly in the future with up to 265 kilograms of payload capacity on subsequent flights.While Peregrine is currently set to become the first private lunar lander ever to touch down on the Moon, there is still an opportunity for one of the firm's competitors to beat it to the punch.

The biggest threat comes from the five teams currently vying to win Google's Lunar XPRIZE, a contest that is offering a $20 million prize to the first privately funded team to successfully land a rover on the Moon's surface, drive it 500 meters from the landing site and then transmit a video back to Earth.

Whether any of them will achieve this before Peregrine's 2019 mission however remains to be seen.


Source: Space.com

Tags: Astrobotic, Moon