The fate of the mission was in the balance as the lander failed to enter its correct orientation in space.

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket with Astrobotic Technology’s lander on board is launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, January 8, 2024 [NASA via AP]

A mission to put the first commercial craft on the moon has suffered a technical problem hours after blasting off from the United States.

Vulcan, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket carrying a robotic lunar lander built by space robotics firm Astrobotic Technology, was launched on Monday at 02:18 EST (07:18 GMT) from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

However, the fate of the mission was soon put into question as the lander failed to enter its correct orientation in space suffering what its owners called an “anomaly”.

“Unfortunately, an anomaly occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation,” Astrobotic said in a statement on X.

Half an hour later, it said that if the anomaly was proven true, it could threaten the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon. To add to the challenge, the firm reported that the spacecraft battery was reaching operationally low levels.

“Just before entering a known period of communication outage, the team developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient the solar panels towards the Sun. Shortly after this maneuver, the spacecraft entered an expected period of communication loss,” Astrobotic said.

Update #2 on Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/hS5QsAihh4

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

The mission is part of an accelerating space race among private companies and would be the first-ever lunar landing by a private company. It would also be the first US landing on the moon in more than half a century.

The lunar lander, named Peregrine, it’s a passenger on the first flight of Vulcan. The rocket was developed by the joint Boeing-Lockheed venture ULA over the last decade.

Commercial space race

If the spacecraft reaches the moon, it would signal the first US soft landing since the final Apollo landing in 1972. It would also be the first-ever lunar landing by a private company.

Peregrine is set to land on the moon on February 23. It is part of a mission to gather data about the lunar surface before planned future human missions.

The launch also marks the first trek to the moon’s surface as part of NASA’s Artemis lunar programme.

The launch was essential for ULA, which developed Vulcan to replace its Atlas V rocket and rival the reusable Falcon 9 from Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the satellite launch market.

Astrobotic aims to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon. Only four countries have managed to do that: the US, Russia, China, and India.

Private companies with hopes of spurring a lunar marketplace have had harder times, with Japan’s ispace and an Israeli company crash-landing on their first attempts.

However, the race among private space operators continues. US company Intuitive Machines also has spacecraft ready to fly and it hopes to beat Astrobotic, which is due to touch down on February 23, as it takes a more direct path.

“First to launch. First to land is TBD,” said Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES