Private moon landing craft suffers 'critical loss of fuel', endangering mission

A lunar lander operated by American firm Astrobotic Technology has suffered a "critical loss of fuel," liking dooming the mission to failure, the Associated Press reported.

The Peregrine launched Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, though the fuel loss quickly upended the vessel's planned Feb. 23 touchdown. The company had hoped to become the first private company to land a craft on the moon, though the possibility of achieving that feat now appears almost certainly lost.

Thus far, only the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India have managed to successfully land crafts on the moon. The Russian Federation attempted a landing in 2023, though the craft collided with the lunar surface.

"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon," Russian space agency Roscosmos said in August.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.