Astrobotic's lander might still travel far enough to reach the moon, but the moon won't be there

• Astrobotic's spacecraft could make it as high as the moon but it won't meet it.
• The lander is still going, despite a fuel leak that dashed hopes of a soft moon landing, Astrobotic said.
• The firm has said it has added at least 35 hours to the lander's propellant.

Astrobotic's lunar lander could still make it far enough to reach the moon — but the moon will be in the wrong place when it arrives.

The spacecraft, called Peregrine, has already traveled 200,000 miles away from Earth, which is about 84% the distance to the moon, Astrobotic said Wednesday.

It suffered an accident when it launched Tuesday and started leaking fuel, scotching its chances of reaching the moon as planned.

It was due to run out of fuel on Thursday — but Astrobotic posted an update saying they had figured out how to make it last longer.

Per its estimate, the craft would have propellant until about 7 a.m. ET on Friday.

This means the lander could yet reach the lunar distance — the required number of miles to reach the moon.

But, though it didn't give precise details, Astrobotic was clear that the moon won't be there at the right time.

A diagram shows an approximation of Peregrine's flight plan. Foto: Astrobotic

As part of Peregrine's flight plan, the lander was due to reach as high as lunar distance. But the spacecraft is then due the circle back toward Earth so it can loop around our planet and slingshot back on to lunar orbit, Astrobotic said.

It would take another 10 days to reach the moon on this route, by which time the spacecraft is expected to have run out of fuel.

Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, seen here before launch. Foto: Astrobotic

Astrobotic's leading theory for the leak is that a valve connecting two tanks failed, allowing pressurized helium to leak into a tank of oxidizer, causing it to burst.

Still, Astrobotic is trying to collect as much scientific information as possible from this attempt and has been racing to extend the spacecraft's operational lifespan as far as it can go.

This NASA-backed mission might ultimately fail to reach the moon, but that's not the end of the space agency's lunar ambitions.

Astrobotic's Peregrine was the first of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) program, a plan aimed at helping private firms develop lunar landers by contracting them to deliver various payloads to the moon.

There are a slew of private lunar lander missions in the works. Another CLPS mission, operated by Houston-based firm Intuitive Machines, is due to launch in a few weeks.

NASA also aims to push forward its ambitions for a crewed lunar landing by the end of the decade. The agency announced Tuesday it aims to put boots on the moon by 2026 after delaying the mission launch by a year.

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