On, Comet! Astrobotic sets Christmas Eve launch date for lunar lander

Pittsburgh has officially set its date to travel to the moon, and it will come as a Christmas present.

Pittsburgh-based space company Astrobotic will launch its Peregrine lunar lander on Dec. 24 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, said Astrobotic CEO John Thorton.

“It has been 16 years in the making,” said Thorton. “We are, pardon the pun, over the moon.”

Peregrine will be carried by the Vulcan Centaur rocket from Colorado-based United Launch Alliance. It will be Astrobotic’s first launch. The company was founded in 2007 and operates out of a 47,000 square foot facility on North Lincoln Avenue.

Astrobotic was awarded $79.5 million from NASA to deliver scientific payloads to the northern part of the moon on behalf of the space agency.

Peregrine is about six feet tall and eight feet wide, with a payload capacity of about 120 kilograms.

Thornton said the rocket will carry the Peregrine lunar lander for a few hours out of Earth’s atmosphere and then from there the lander is on its own.

Peregrine will move methodically on a trajectory to the moon, taking potentially about five days, said Thorton.

Once in the moon’s orbit, the lander will wait for the best time to descend toward the moon.

Thornton said Astrobotic needs to ensure the right lighting is available at the landing spot, noting that the moon receives 14 days of sunlight at a time, followed by 14 days of darkness.

“We have to wait for the right time to land, for lighting purposes. It could be a few days, or a few weeks,” he said.

Unlike missions with humans on board, Peregrine is run by robotics and thus can take a longer and more fuel-efficient route to get to the moon, said Thorton.

He said launch day will be an extremely proud day for Astrobotic employees, the company’s partners, and Pittsburgh as a whole.

The region’s space industry has been growing fast and Thorton said it is an integral part of Pittsburgh’s transition and growth in the tech sector.

He said the launch is an “exclamation point” in the region’s economic transition from heavy industry to tech.

“Pittsburgh used to be built as a steel town, and now we are a tech one. Steel helped to build things, and we are still building things that are building the country, just in a different way,” said Thorton. “If Pittsburgh can land on the moon, that means Pittsburgh can do anything.”

Thornton said Peregrine’s launch is just the first of Astrobotics missions. He said the company is working on launching a lunar rover to the moon, in order to drill near the moon’s pole looking for water and ice.

“This is not our last mission to the moon,” he said.

He said those interested in learning more about Astrobotics missions can visit the company’s Moonshot Museum, located at the company’s headquarters at 1016 North Lincoln Ave.