On Monday (Jan. 8), the first private American moon spacecraft, Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, successfully launched from Florida on the first-ever mission of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket.
Peregrine is scheduled to reach the lunar surface on Feb. 23, though it's unclear if that will happen: The lander suffered an anomaly shortly after being deployed from the Vulcan Centaur, and the mission team is working to fix it. If it does make it to the moon, Peregrine will gather vital information about the lunar surface using a suite of five NASA science instruments.
