WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The first U.S. private Moon lander mission has been launched successfully.
As scheduled, the United Launch Alliance company's Vulcan rocket, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander, launched from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday.
It also marked the first commercial robotic launch to the Moon's surface.
The test flight is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon's surface.
The rocket will deliver the Astrobotic Peregrine commercial lunar lander into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,000 miles above Earth to intercept the Moon, and will carry a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Payload into deep space.
If everything goes well, Peregrine is scheduled to land on the Moon on February 23, according to NASA.
The NASA payloads aboard the lander aim to help develop capabilities needed to explore the Moon under the U.S. space agency's Artemis program, and in advance of human missions on the lunar surface.
Once on the Moon, NASA instruments will study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties of the lunar regolith, hydrogen abundances in the soil at the landing site, and conduct radiation environment monitoring. The five NASA science and research payloads aboard the lander will help the agency better understand planetary processes and evolution, search for evidence of water and other resources, and support long-term, sustainable human exploration.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson described Monday's launch as 'a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century.' 'These high-risk missions will not only conduct new science at the Moon, but they are supporting a growing commercial space economy while showing the strength of American technology and innovation. We have so much science to learn through CLPS missions that will help us better understand the evolution of our solar system and shape the future of human exploration for the Artemis Generation.'
Through Artemis, NASA is working with multiple CLPS vendors to send a regular cadence of deliveries to the Moon to perform science investigations, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help the U.S. space agency explore the Moon before it sends the first astronauts to land near the lunar South Pole.
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