Private Peregrine moon lander will now touch down near 'geologic enigma' - Space.com

NASA has redirected a private U.S. moon lander to a new touchdown site to increase science returns ahead of crewed lunar missions.

The Peregrine lunar lander, built by Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic, is now slated to touch down, along with a suite of NASA science gear, this year in a strange patch of the moon known as the Gruithuisen Domes.

That payload is a set of instruments called the Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) that will examine how the domes were formed and what they are made of.

"Relocation of Astrobotic’s Peregrine CLPS flight ... near the Domes will present complementary and meaningful data to Lunar-VISE without introducing additional risk to the lander," NASA officials said.

Peregrine also may not be first of the CLPS sojourns to arrive at the moon; Intuitive Machines plans to launch its Nova-C lander in the first quarter of 2023, for example.

And another private mission is flying to the moon right now: The Hakuto-R lander, built by Tokyo-based company ispace, is scheduled to touch down in April.