United States To Return To Moon Over Five Decades After Last Apollo Mission. Know When

A spacecraft called Peregrine is scheduled for launch on December 24 from Florida aboard the inaugural flight of the United Launch Alliance's (ULA's) Vulcan Centaur. 

While Apollo 17 was a crewed Moon mission, and was launched by NASA, the new Moon mission will be uncrewed, and will be launched by a private firm.

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The United States is set to return to the Moon over five decades after the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, which landed on the Moon on December 11, 1972. While Apollo 17 was a crewed Moon mission, and was launched by NASA, the new Moon mission will be uncrewed, and will be launched by a private firm. Astrobotic, an American company, has developed a lander named Peregrine, which is expected to land on the Moon on January 25, 2024, news agency AFP reported. 

Peregrine is scheduled for launch on December 24 from Florida aboard the inaugural flight of the United Launch Alliance's (ULA's) Vulcan Centaur. 

If Peregrine successfully lands on the Moon, Astrobotic will become the first company to successfully touch down a lander on the lunar surface. According to an AFP report, Astrobiotic's CEO John Thornton said Peregrine will carry NASA instruments to study the lunar environment. The data obtained from this mission will help NASA's Artemis crewed missions. 

As part of a programme called Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), NASA provides contracts to American companies to send scientific experiments, robotic landers, rovers, and technologies to the Moon. Companies mostly aim to send these spacecraft to the lunar south pole. The goals of the spacecraft are to perform in-situ resource utilisation experiments, search for lunar sources, and conduct lunar science experiments. These are fixed-price contracts that can enhance the lunar economy.

Quoting Thornton, the AFP report said that one of the big challenges of what the company is attempting includes attempting a launch and landing on the lunar surface for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost. 

Thornton also said that only about half of the missions that have gone to the surface of the Moon have been successful, and hence, this is certainly a daunting challenge.

Peregrine will take "a few days" to reach lunar orbit. In order to ensure a safe landing, the light conditions at the target location must be right, which is why the company is waiting until January 25 to land the spacecraft, according to Thornton. 

There will be no human intervention when Peregrine carries out an autonomous descent towards the Moon. However, the company's control centre will monitor the landing. 

Earlier this year, Japanese startup ispace had attempted to become the first private firm to land on the Moon, but the spacecraft crashed. 

The only four countries which have successfully landed on the Moon are the United States, Russia, China, and India.