BUSINESS INSIDER
A US spacecraft carrying human remains launched on Monday in a bid to become the first private mission to land on the moon.
- A US spacecraft carrying human remains launched on Monday in a bid to land on the moon.
- However, the company that built the lander said later that day there was a “critical loss of propellant.”
- It could jeopardize the entire mission, which would be the first US mission in over 50 years to land on the moon.
However, the mission is in trouble.
“Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant,” the company that built the lunar lander, Astrobotic, said in an update Monday afternoon.
The company added that it’s working to try and stabilize the fuel loss while assessing, “what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.”
The incident could jeopardize the entire mission.
If the mission succeeds, however, Peregrine will also be the first US mission in more than 50 years to complete a lunar touchdown and could pave the way for commercial space services, such as lunar burials.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for 16 years,” John Thornton, CEO of Astrobiotic, the company behind the lander, said after the launch. “We are on our way to the moon.”
The Vulcan Centaur rocket, developed by United Launch Alliance, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at around 2 a.m. ET.
Around an hour later, the Peregrine spacecraft separated from the rocket and began its journey to the lunar surface, where it is expected to land on February 23.
The commercial mission is carrying more than 20 payloads, including five scientific missions from NASA and some more unconventional items like human DNA and cremated remains.
Several capsules on board the lander are part of a memorial service offered by private companies Celestis and Elysium Space. Both offer to take ashes to space, while Celestis will also bring human DNA from a mouth swab.
Celestis had two payloads on the launch: one aboard the United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket that sent the lander to space, and one aboard the Peregrine lander heading to the moon itself.
The remains and DNA brought on the rocket include Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator, and actors who played in the show, including Roddenberry’s wife Majel Barrett, per The New York Times.
Another capsule contains the hair of George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, per The Times.
As for those whose DNA and ashes are heading to the moon aboard Peregrine, one name stands out — Arthur C Clarke, famed science-fiction writer who co-wrote the script for 2001: A Space Odyssey with American film director Stanley Kubrick, per Celestis’s website.
Celestis’s moon service starts at about $13,000, per its website.
This isn’t the first time human remains have been taken to space — or even the first time Gene Roddenberry’s cremated remains have flown above our planet. The screenwriter was also part of the first human “space burial” in 1992 when his ashes were put aboard NASA’s spacecraft Columbia.
This launch has been controversial, drawing ire in particular from the Navajo Nation, who see the moon as sacred.
