The Cert-1 mission’s primary payload, Peregrine, was deployed from the Centaur upper stage 50 minutes after liftoff following two burns of the Centaur upper stage.
Peregrine separated from the Centaur upper stage about 50 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.
The Cert-1 mission will deliver Astrobotic’s Peregrine commercial lunar lander (Peregrine Mission One, PM1) into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,0 m (360,0 m) above Earth to intercept the Moon.
Peregrine carries a shoebox-sized, 2 kg (4.4-pound) rover named Iris that was built by Carnegie Mellon students to take geological images.
The Peregrine lander carries a shoebox-sized, 2 kg (4.4-pound) rover named Iris that was built by Carnegie Mellon students to take geological images.
The Cert-1 flight will deliver the Astrobotic Peregrine commercial lunar lander into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,0 m (360,0 m) above Earth to intercept the Moon.
Vulcan’s debut mission will send Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander to the Moon using the Centaur V powered by twin RL10C-1-1A engines.
Peregrine is slated to be the first private American spacecraft launched as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to deliver science and technology experiments to the lunar surface.
The Certification-1 (Cert-1) flight test will deliver the Astrobotic Peregrine commercial lunar lander into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,0 m (360,0 m) above Earth to intercept the Moon.
Peregrine carries a shoebox-sized, 2 kg (4.4-pound) rover called Iris that was built by Carnegie Mellon students to take geological images.
Space Exploration Engineering (SEE) leveraged Ansys' DME capabilities to support Astrobotic's Peregrine mission.
Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, requested that NASA delay the launch because memorial payloads on Peregrine are viewed by the Navajo Nation as desecration and he cited an agreement after the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission that carried Eugene Shoemaker’s ashes.
Peregrine will ferry 20 payloads from seven countries to the Moon.
Astrobotic engineers employed Ansys Discovery to mature the stress design and optimize the Peregrine lander for assembly.
NASA planned to fly up to 10 instruments on Peregrine but removed five of those experiments, as noted at a 2023-11-29 briefing, because of issues with lander and descent engine performance.
SEE used Ansys Systems Tool Kit (STK) to assist in planning Peregrine's mission, trajectory, and maneuvers.
The primary payload of Cert-1 is Peregrine, a commercial lunar lander developed by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic.
Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander will support NASA's exploration of the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.
Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander is scheduled to launch in early January and land in late February.
The launch of Peregrine on Vulcan Centaur will serve as the first of two certification flights before it can launch national security payloads.