https://sputnikglobe.com/20231130/mark-your-calendar-us-looks-to-make-first-lunar-visit-in-decades-by-2024-1115313663.html
Mark Your Calendar! US Looks to Make First Lunar Visit in Decades by 2024
Mark Your Calendar! US Looks to Make First Lunar Visit in Decades by 2024
Sputnik International
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has commissioned a private American company, Astrobotic, to carry out the mission.
2023-11-30T22:19+0000
2023-11-30T22:19+0000
2023-11-30T22:16+0000
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The US is returning to the moon, but this time, they're going private.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has commissioned a private American company, Astrobotic, to carry out the lunar mission. The six-foot-tall lander, Peregrine, will have no one on board but will instead carry NASA instruments that will be used to study the moon’s environment.If the mission proves to be successful, Astrobotic could be the first private company to land on the moon."NASA leadership is aware of the risks and has accepted that some of these missions might not succeed," said Chris Culbert, the CLPS program manager. "But even if every landing isn't successful, CLPS already had an impact on the commercial infrastructure needed to establish a lunar economy," he said.John Thornton, the CEO of the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic, underscored that "one of the big challenges of what we're attempting here is attempting a launch and landing on the surface [of the] moon for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost."The launch is expected to take off on December 24 at 1:50 a.m. local time from Florida aboard the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket. The probe is then expected to touch down on the moon on January 25, 2024.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230906/nasas-lunar-orbiter-captures-chandrayaan-3s-historic-moon-landing-site-1113163744.html
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Mark Your Calendar! US Looks to Make First Lunar Visit in Decades by 2024
The upcoming lunar trip, which is expected to take place in January of next year, will be the first US mission to the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1969, during which American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.
The US is returning to the moon, but this time, they're going private.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has commissioned a private American company, Astrobotic, to carry out the lunar mission. The six-foot-tall lander, Peregrine, will have no one on board but will instead carry NASA instruments that will be used to study the moon’s environment.
If the mission proves to be successful, Astrobotic could be the first private company to land on the moon.
The commission is part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA works alongside various American companies “to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface.”
According to NASA’s website, the companies “bid on delivering payloads for NASA”, and CLPS contracts are “indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts with a cumulative maximum contract value of $2.6 billion through 2028.” The purpose of these fixed-price contracts will help to create a lunar economy that will provide lower prices for space travel, according to some experts in the field.
"NASA leadership is aware of the risks and has accepted that some of these missions might not succeed," said Chris Culbert, the CLPS program manager. "But even if every landing isn't successful, CLPS already had an impact on the commercial infrastructure needed to establish a lunar economy," he said. 
6 September 2023, 23:58 GMT
John Thornton, the CEO of the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic, underscored that "one of the big challenges of what we're attempting here is attempting a launch and landing on the surface [of the] moon for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost."
"Only about half of the missions that have gone to the surface of the moon have been successful. So it's certainly a daunting challenge. I'm going to be terrified and thrilled all at once at every stage of this," he said.
The launch is expected to take off on December 24 at 1:50 a.m. local time from Florida aboard the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket. The probe is then expected to touch down on the moon on January 25, 2024.
A total of 12 people - all American men involved in the Apollo missions - have walked on the Earth’s moon. Only four countries have had successful touch downs on the moon: the US, Russia, China, and more recently, India.
