The doomed US moon lander is on a collision course with Earth and will be destroyed to protect other satellites

This image taken from Peregrine after launch showed damage to the lander’s outer sheeting. Astrobotic

• Astrobotic will let its lander burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere when it comes back to our planet.
• The spacecraft’s mission to the moon was scuppered shortly after launch due to a fuel leak. 
• Astrobotic has decided to sacrifice the spacecraft to protect other satellites orbiting the moon. 

The doomed US lunar lander is on a collision course with Earth and will be destroyed early to protect other satellites that may get in its way.

“Our latest assessment now shows the spacecraft is on a path towards Earth, where it will likely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere,” Astrobotic, the company behind the Peregrine lander, said on Saturday.

The Pittsburgh-based company believes the lander could be manoeuvered to avoid falling back to Earth, but has decided that it is too unstable to fly around other spacecraft.

“Ultimately, we must balance our own desire to extend Peregrine’s life, operate payloads, and learn more about the spacecraft, with the risk that our damaged spacecraft could cause a problem in cislunar space,” Astrobotic said.

Cislunar space is the area around the moon.

Astrobotic launched its Peregrine lunar lander on January 8, prompting hopes it could be the first American spacecraft to make it back to the moon since the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago. It is the first US private lander to launch.

But the NASA-backed mission was brought to a swift end after a fuel leak was discovered on board shortly was sent on its way.

Later investigation suggested this was due to a faulty valve.

A ULA Vulcan rocket launches into space on Monday, carrying the Peregrine Mission One lunar lander. Astrobotic

The team had been rushing to extend the use of the lander’s on board propellant in a bid to gather as much information as it could during Peregrine’s flight.

With these engineering efforts, Astrobotic extended Peregrine’s operational lifespan for more than six days, a marked improvement on the original estimate that predicted it would run out of fuel by Friday 7 a.m.

The company expects the lander could be kept running for another couple of weeks, but after firing the spacecraft’s main engine on Saturday, it found that it was too unstable, making long controlled burns impossible.

“While we believe it is possible for the spacecraft to operate for several more weeks and could potentially have raised the orbit to miss the Earth, we must take into consideration the anomalous state of the propulsion system and utilize the vehicle’s onboard capability to end the mission responsibly and safely,” Astrobotic said.

As part of its flight plan, the probe was expected to travel as high as the moon and then head back to Earth so it could slingshot back to its final destination.

A schematic shows Peregrine’s planned trajectory as of Saturday. The Earth is represented by a blue dot. Astrobotic

Astrobotic confirmed on Friday that Peregrine reached lunar distance. But instead of helping the spacecraft steer clear of the Earth’s atmosphere when it comes back, it will now let the lander collide with our planet.

The spacecraft is then due to disintegrate as it burns up on reentry. This is standard practice when decommissioning a ship orbiting the Earth and Astrobotic expects this will not pose a safety risk.

The company has not released a date for its spacecraft’s re-entry, but it is expected to be within the next couple of days as the mission will be brought to an end on Thursday, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton, said in the press release.

The vehicle was about 234,000 miles away from Earth on Sunday, per Astrobotic.

“I look forward to sharing these, and more remarkable stories, after the mission concludes on January 18. This mission has already taught us so much and has given me great confidence that our next mission to the moon will achieve a soft landing,” said Thornton.

The Peregrine lander aboard the Centaur Vulcan rocket ahead of launch. Astrobotic

The lander is carrying 20 payloads from seven countries and 16 companies, including scientific equipment for NASA and human memorial ashes and DNA.

The team managed to switch on all of the payloads that could be activated and even collected some scientific data during its aborted mission.

While this might be the end for Peregrine, NASA still has big plans for the moon.

The agency has commissioned several private firms to attempt to deliver payloads to the moon in uncrewed spacecraft as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

Another CLPS mission, operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is due to launch mid-February.