Vulcan is designed to replace two older rockets, and the United States Space Force is also counting on it to launch spy satellites and other spacecraft that are important for U.S. national security.
Seventeen Atlas V launches remain, but the rocket uses Russian-built engines, which became more politically untenable with the rise of tensions between Russia and the United States.
That has spurred a protest from the leaders of the Navajo Nation, who say that many Native Americans consider the moon to be a sacred place, and that they consider sending human remains there to be desecration.
John Thornton, the chief executive of Astrobotic, said on Friday that he was disappointed that “this conversation came up so late in the game,” because his company had announced the participation of Celestis and Elysium years ago.
NASA announced the program to tap on private industry for moon deliveries — called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, for short — in 2018.
A second CLPS mission, by Intuitive Machines of Houston, is scheduled to launch as early as mid-February and take a quicker path to the moon, meaning it could reach the surface before Peregrine.
The original article contains 1,520 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!