First US Moon Lander in 50 Years in Serious Trouble After Launch

Communication has been lost.

Update: Things are not looking good for the Peregrine lander.

The first US lunar lander to be launched into space in more than half a century is in serious trouble.

The lander, dubbed Peregrine One and built by Pittsburgh-based private space company Astrobotic, launched on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket — the rocket’s maiden voyage — from Cape Canaveral earlier this morning.

Unfortunately, according to a recent statement shared by Astrobotic on X-formerly-Twitter, “an anomaly occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable Sun-pointing orientation.”

The issue is making it difficult for the spacecraft to fully charge its battery, which could herald serious issues.

Just over an hour later, Astrobotic offered up a followup statement, saying that the unstable position “if proven true, threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the Moon.”

In response, the team “developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient the solar panels towards the Sun.”

The hasty plan unfortunately had some unforeseen consequences, seemingly causing the spacecraft to lose communications.

In short, it’s not looking good for the country’s first effort to softly land a spacecraft on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

More on the mission: Private American Moon Mission Launching Monday