Peregrine lander: American Moon mission destroyed over Pacific Ocean

A US spacecraft launched last week to try to land on the Moon has ended its mission in flames over the Pacific.

Had the Peregrine craft been able to land successfully, it would have become the first American mission in half a century to do so, and the first ever private venture to achieve the feat. "Space exploration is a learning game, especially at this stage and we shouldn't look at this as a failure; we should look at this as an incredible engineering success," Sian Cleaver, Airbus' Orion European Service Module industrial manager, told the BBC's Today Programme.

The fault was traced to leaking propellant from a ruptured oxidiser tank. This was generating a thrust, turning the craft and preventing it from keeping its solar panels constantly pointed at the Sun - vital to maintain a power supply.

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