Fuel leak forces US company to abandon moon landing attempt
Cape Canaveral, Jan 10: A crippling fuel leak forced a US company on Tuesday to give up on landing a spacecraft on the moon.
Astrobotic Technology's lander began losing fuel soon after Monday's launch. The spacecraft also encountered problems keeping its solar panel pointed towards the sun and generating solar power.
“Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon,” Astrobotic said in a statement.
Astrobotic had been targeting a lunar landing on February 23, following a roundabout, fuel-efficient flight to the moon. It could have been the first US moon landing in more than 50 years, and the first by a private company. A second lander from a Houston company is due to launch next month.
Only four countries have pulled off a successful moon landing.
The company said the new goal was to keep the lander operating as long as possible in space, in order to learn as much as possible for its next mission a year or so from now. Flight controllers managed to keep the spacecraft pointed toward the sun and its battery fully charged, with another 40 hours of operations anticipated.
The Pittsburgh-based company did not elaborate on why the Peregrine lander's propellant system failed just hours into the flight.
NASA paid Astrobotic USD 108 million to fly its experiments to the moon on this mission, part of the agency's commercial lunar programme.
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Leh-bound SpiceJet plane faces engine issue; returns to national capital
New Delhi (PTI): A Leh-bound SpiceJet aircraft returned to the national capital due to an engine issue on Tuesday morning, according to a source.
There were around 150 people on board the Boeing 737 aircraft that was operating the flight SG121, the source added.
When contacted, a SpiceJet spokesperson said a flight operating from Delhi to Leh on Tuesday returned to Delhi after experiencing a technical issue.
"The aircraft landed safely in Delhi, and all passengers were disembarked normally," the spokesperson said in a statement.
The source said the aircraft suffered an engine issue.
