It’s not a good sign when the CEO of your private space exploration company announces the mission to land on the Moon will be replaced with an as-yet undefined exploratory mission to the Moon mere minutes after your craft has taken flight. But as CNN reports, that’s what happened with Astrobotic’s Peregrine mission, launched early Monday morning: first, a battery charging issue jeopardized communication with the craft, then flight engineers found a massive loss of propellant that makes a controlled landing of the craft now impossible.
The latest announcement from the company says the mission crew is now attempting to use the remaining lifespan of the craft to “perform as many payload and spacecraft operations as possible.” One potential plan is to place the craft in orbit transmitting data back until it runs out of power instead of attempting any type of landing.