The capsule is currently about as far away from Earth as the moon, but is on a trajectory that will take it back to Earth, where it will most likely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the Pittsburgh company Astrobotic announced on Monday . After consultation with the US space agency NASA, among others, it was decided to allow the capsule to crash in a controlled manner in this way. When and where exactly this will take place was not initially announced.
The private mission launched a week ago from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. However, problems arose shortly after take-off: due to a fault in the propulsion system, there was, among other things, a fuel leak. The engineers temporarily managed to stabilize the capsule, but the goal of landing on the moon had to be abandoned. The capsule was supposed to land in February in an area called Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness), completing the first – unmanned – US moon landing since the Apollo mission over 50 years ago.
Image gallery: First private lunar mission launched at Cape Canaveral
(Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA (AFP)) Image 1/20 View gallery
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