Astrobotic's Peregrine lander was launched on January 8 under an experimental new partnership between NASA and private industry intended to reduce costs for American taxpayers and seed a lunar economy.

But it experienced an explosion shortly after separating from its rocket and had been leaking fuel, damaging its outer shell as well as making it impossible to reach its destination.

In its latest update, Astrobotic posted on X that it had lost contact with its spacecraft shortly before 2100 GMT Thursday, mid-morning on Friday in the local time zone, indicating a "controlled re-entry over open water" as it had predicted.

The Pittsburgh-based company added it would await independent confirmation of Peregrine's fate from the relevant government authorities. A previous update provided atmospheric re-entry coordinates a few hundred miles (kilometers) south of Fiji, albeit with a wide margin of error.

Engineers had executed a series of small engine burns to position the boxy, golf cart-sized robot over the ocean to "minimize the risk of debris reaching land."

Astrobotic also tweeted a photograph taken by the spaceship on its final day, revealing the Earth's crescent as it positioned itself between the Sun and our planet.

Peregrine operated for over 10 days in space, exciting enthusiasts even after it became clear Astrobotic would not succeed in its goal to be the first company to achieve a controlled touchdown on the Moon -- and the first American soft landing since the end of the Apollo era, more than five decades ago.

NASA had paid the company more than $100 million under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to ship its science instruments to the Moon, as it prepares to send American astronauts back to the barren world later this decade under the Artemis program.

Astrobotic also carried more colorful cargo on behalf of private clients, such as the DNA and cremated remains of some 70 people, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke.

Though it hasn't worked out this time, NASA officials have made clear their strategy of "more shots on goal" means more chances to score. The next attempt under CLPS, by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, launches in February.

The Japanese space agency's "Moon Sniper," which launched in September, will be the next spaceship to attempt a soft lunar touchdown, a notoriously difficult feat, shortly after midnight Japan time on Saturday (1500 GMT on Friday).

If it succeeds, Japan will be the fifth nation to complete the achievement, after the Soviet Union, United States, China and India.

To the Moon and back: modern lunar exploration
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 18, 2024 - Japan, whose unmanned "sniper" probe will attempt a lunar landing on Saturday, is one of many countries and private companies launching new missions to the Moon.

It is a feat so far only achieved by four nations -- the United States, the Soviet Union, China and most recently India -- with spacecraft often losing communication or crash-landing.

Modern lunar exploration programmes include plans to put humans on the Moon for the first time since 1972 and eventually establish bases there.

Here is a rundown of the latest moonshots:

- United States -

The first country to land on the Moon wants to build a sustained presence there as a pitstop for missions to Mars.

But it has faced two setbacks this month, as NASA postponed plans for crewed lunar missions and a private lander had to turn back after leaking fuel.

Under the US space agency's Artemis programme, astronauts had been due to fly around the Moon this year but the mission has been pushed back to 2025 to allow for extra safety checks.

A third Artemis voyage -- to put the first woman and first person of colour on lunar soil -- is now scheduled for 2026 instead of 2025.

Even that may be optimistic, because the Artemis 3 lander, a modified version of SpaceX's next-gen Starship rocket, has exploded in two test flights.

NASA says commercial tie-ups give it "more shots on goal" although its Peregrine lunar lander, made by US company Astrobotic, failed when it lost fuel after take-off.

The next attempt, by Texas-based Intuitive Machines, launches in February.

- India -

"India is on the Moon!" the country's space agency chair announced to cheers at mission control in August after Chandrayaan-3 became the first craft to land near the celestial body's south pole.

The unmanned mission orbited Earth several times to build up speed for its journey, resulting in a historic triumph for India's ambitious, cut-price space programme.

In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to orbit a probe around Mars, and Chandrayaan-3 followed a successful launch into lunar orbit in 2008 and a failed Moon landing in 2019.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has a dozen missions planned for 2024, including preparation for a three-day trip into Earth's orbit -- its first crewed space flight.

- Russia -

The Luna-25 mission in August was meant to mark Russia's return to independent lunar exploration, nearly half a century after the Soviet Union last landed on the Moon.

But the lander crashed on the rocky lunar surface, where it was meant to collect samples and analyse soil for one year.

The failure dealt a blow to Moscow's hopes of building on the legacy of the Soviet-era Luna missions, as financial troubles and corruption scandals plague its space programme.

President Vladimir Putin has also been working to strengthen space cooperation with China after ties with the West broke down following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

- China -

The world's second-largest economy has pumped billions of dollars into its military-run space programme as China chases its "space dream" under President Xi Jinping.

A decade since the Chang'e-3 became the first Chinese spacecraft to land on the Moon, the country is now pursuing plans to send a crewed mission by 2030 and build a base there.

In 2019, the unmanned Chang'e-4 landed on the far side of the Moon, and a year later, Chang'e-5 brought the first lunar samples back to Earth in more than 40 years.

In October, the country sent a fresh team to its Tiangong space station in the latest crewed mission for the fast-growing space programme.

- Japan -

Japanese company ispace attempted a soft lunar landing in April last year but crashed, becoming the third private entity to have failed in the endeavour.

Space agency JAXA has suffered a run of bad luck, losing communication with its Omotenashi lunar probe carried on Artemis 1 in 2022.

It has also seen failures after lift-off of the next-generation H3 launch rocket and the normally reliable solid-fuel Epsilon rocket.

So hopes are high for a successful touchdown on Saturday of its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) craft, nicknamed the "Moon Sniper" for its precision landing capabilities.

The pressure is on, however, as countries from South Korea to the United Arab Emirates ramp up efforts to be the next to make lunar history.

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