Joe Marino/UPI Credit/Alamy Live News
THIS is the year of the moon, and it is already kicking off. The first launch of the Vulcan rocket on 8 January marked the start of what may be the biggest deluge of missions the moon has ever seen, thanks to NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme.
The first CLPS mission is Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, an uncrewed craft lofted on Vulcan that hoped to reach the lunar surface on 23 February. It could have been the first time a private firm touched down on the moon, but Peregrine suffered a fuel leak and won’t now make it…