Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One splashed down in the South Pacific yesterday around 4:04 pm local time on January 18th, completing its trip to space after launching from Cape Canaveral on January 8, 2024.

In their final mission update, Astrobotic said

Peregrine Mission One has concluded. We look to the future and our next mission to the Moon, Griffin Mission One. All of the hard-earned experience from the past 10 days in space along with the preceding years of designing, building, and testing Peregrine will directly inform Griffin and our future missions. 

Peregrine and its payload teams have made a meaningful contribution to our lunar future, and we thank everyone who supported this mission. Courtesy of United Launch Alliance, this video was captured from their Vulcan rocket’s payload fairing.

Peregrine has flown so Griffin may land.

Astrobotic: Final Update for Peregrine Mission

Great Start

Peregrine enjoyed a perfect ride to space on board United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket making its maiden voyage on January 8th. That launch was deemed a success after what ULA CEO Tory Bruno labeled as a “Bullseye” launch that ended nearly precisely in its intended orbital altitude, inclination and speed.

Shortly after being placed in orbit, communications with Peregrine was established by Astrobotic, and the spacecraft was sent on its course to the moon. Not long after that, Peregrine’s problems began. Those problems precluded completing the primary mission of a soft lunar landing, and instead, Astrobotics salvaged what science they could from the mission and prepared for an eventual conclusion.

The lander made it’s controlled re-entry on January 18th, concluding the first of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions.

Next CLPS Mission

CLPS will try again next month when Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander (IM-1) is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sometime in February.