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A robotic spacecraft carrying the remains of more than 70 people is expected to burn up upon its reentry to Earth’s atmosphere Thursday. The Peregrine mission, intended for the moon’s surface, was doomed in as little as seven hours after its launch on Jan. 8, when it suffered a failure in its propulsion system and began to leak fuel. The flight would’ve been the first U.S. mission to land on the moon in more than 50 years.
Astrobotic, the company that launched the Peregrine, announced definitively that the Peregrine would never reach the moon a day after the launch and the propulsion leak began, on Jan. 9. It stood by its decision Sunday, when it said it would allow the spacecraft to reenter Earth’s atmosphere, upon which the craft and its deceased passengers would burn up.
The human remains, which included that of science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, were stored in capsules on the moon-bound robotic spacecraft. They were meant to “remain on the lunar surface as a permanent tribute to the intrepid souls who never stopped reaching for the stars,” as Celestis, a memorial spaceflight company involved in the failed mission, says on its website.