- last month ULA CEO Tory Bruno announced in a post on social media that the launch date of the company’s new rocket, Vulcan Cert-1, was postponed to January 8, 2024.
- Launch of Vulcan Cert-1, As planned, today at 10:18 a.m. Turkish time, ULA’s Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida. At Force Station It took place from Space Launch Complex-41.
- If the rocket’s landing on the Moon is successful From Apollo 17 in 1972 It will be the first US private mission to land safely on the Moon since.
UPDATE: Astrobotic’s history-making private lunar lander experienced an anomaly on its way to the Moon. The Astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander was launched into elliptical orbit atop a Vulcan Centaur rocket built by ULA early yesterday. The lander was expected to land on the Moon on February 23, but just a few hours into its journey, the lander experienced an anomaly that could threaten the entire lunar landing mission, according to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Astrobotic. Seven hours after the vehicle was launched, a statement was made on the company’s official website. According to the first update An anomaly occurred in the vehicle that prevented its orientation towards the Sun. Made by the company through X second updateHe also reported that the reason for this may be a thrust problem. According to the update, while the team was trying to solve the thrust problem, the battery of the vehicle started to drop to low levels. The team also had to improvise a maneuver by turning the solar panels towards the Sun before entering a possible period of miscommunication. After the move, the vehicle entered a period of non-communication. The company stated that it will continue updates. Held at 21.00 Türkiye time another update It was written that there was a critical loss in the vehicle’s fuel and that evaluations were made for alternative mission profiles. made in the last update The first photo from the vehicle was shared. In the statement, it was written that the vehicle battery was fully charged and they were using Peregrine’s current power. The company also wrote in the statement that the Pregrine mission team has been working non-stop for more than 24 hours and that they will continue to provide continuous updates, and asked its followers who are watching this critical event with curiosity to be patient.
Last month, ULA CEO Tory Bruno announced in a post on social media that the launch date of the company’s new rocket, Vulcan Cert-1, was postponed to January 8, 2024. As planned, Vulcan Cert-1 was launched this morning. With this launch, ULA successfully launched its first Vulcan Centaur rocket into space today and carried human remains and scientific equipment to the Moon and deep space with its special Astrobotic Peregrine Lunar Lander.
The Vulcan Centaur rocket was launched at 10.18 am Turkey time from ULA’s Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, as part of the Cert-1 mission prepared to prove its readiness for commercial and government flights. The rocket also carries the Peregrine lunar lander, built by US company Astrobotic and containing six experiments for NASA, as the first flight of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme. If the rocket’s landing on the Moon is successful, it will be the first private US mission to land safely on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Among the scientific equipment in the Peregrine vehicle carried by the Vulcan Cert-1 rocket, LETS (Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer) will measure radiation, NIRVSS (Near Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System) will solve the composition of the lunar soil, determine its temperature and structure, NSS (Neutron Spectrometer System) will search for water, PITMS (Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer) will study ions in the Moon’s atmosphere, and the LRA (Laser Retroreflector Array) will serve as a new permanent location marker that will help scientists measure the Moon’s position many years into the future.
Astrobotic’s Peregrine is also carrying other payloads to the Moon for paying customers. These include a package for the DHL delivery service, a digital art gallery, and human DNA samples for space burial companies Celestis and Elysium. Possible launch dates calculated this week were January 8, 9, 10 and 11. According to forecasts, the January 8 launch promised the best weather conditions for these four launch plans. There was an 85% chance of good weather on launch day, Jan. 8, according to Melody Lovin, 45th Air Squadron launch weather officer at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. However, due to heavy clouds on January 9, the probability of good weather dropped to 40% and remained at 45% on January 10 and 11. Therefore, the launch was carried out today.
As NASA has several experiments on the Moon with the Vulcan payload Peregrine lander, the US space agency offered viewers a live webcast of the launch.
Compiled by: Fatma Ebrar Tuncel
