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Pittsburgh space startup Astrobotic’s lunar lander Peregrine will not take off for a month on Christmas Eve.
The lander was scheduled to launch on December 24 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carried by a Vulcan Centaur rocket from Colorado-based United Launch Alliance.
However, on Sunday, the CEO of the United Launch Alliance, Tory Bruno, said that the launch of the Vulcan rocket will be delayed, due to common ground problems. The next launch window, he said, is January 8.
#VulcanRocket WDR Update: The car went well. The ground system had some problems (common), (corrected). The timeline was long so it didn’t end well. I want a FULL WDR before our first trip, so it looks like XMAS night. Peregrine’s window is 8 Jan.
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) December 10, 2023
During recent tests, the car drove well, but there were problems with the ground, Bruno said in a press release. A full sample will not be available in time for Christmas.
The launch of Peregrine will be Astrobotic’s first. The company was founded in 2007 and operates out of a 47,000-square-foot facility on North Lincoln Avenue on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Astrobotic was awarded $79.5 million from NASA to deliver scientific cargo to the north side of the moon.
When launched, Peregrine will be carrying 21 payments from governments, companies, universities and NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The building itself is about 6 feet high and 8 feet wide, and weighs about 120 kilograms, or 265 pounds.
Julia Maruca is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Julia at jmaruca@triblive.com.