Spurting fuel after an explosion early in its journey, America’s private lunar lander is somehow still on track, taking selfies and launching scientific instruments as it travels through space. Although Astrobotic, the company that created the Peregrine robot, said that a controlled landing on the moon was no longer possible, it did not rule out the possibility of a “hard landing” or collision, which alarmed space observers.

“Peregrine has been in space for over 4 days,” Astrobotic said in its latest update on X on Friday, adding that it remained “stable and operational.”

As the pressure inside the tank decreases, the rate of fuel loss gradually decreases; This means the company has been able to extend the life of the spacecraft much longer than initially thought possible. Meanwhile, the American, German and Mexican space agencies were able to include the scientific instruments they wanted to launch to the moon in the program.

“Measuring and operating NASA-supplied science instruments onboard will provide valuable experience, technical expertise and scientific data for future CLPS lunar launches,” said Joel Kearns, NASA deputy administrator for intelligence.

Commercial Lunar Payload Services is an experimental NASA program in which the space agency paid Astrobotic more than $100 million to deliver Peregrine equipment as part of a strategy to create a commercial lunar economy and reduce its own overhead. Astrobotic became the third private enterprise to fail a soft landing, following an Israeli non-profit organization and a Japanese company.

Although it didn’t work this time, NASA officials made clear that the “more shots on goal” strategy meant more scoring chances, and Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ next attempt will begin in February. Astrobotic itself will get another chance in November, when its Griffin lander will carry NASA’s VIPER rover to the moon’s south pole.

For now, the Pittsburgh-based company is remaining tight-lipped about Peregrine’s destination, leaving enthusiasts to make their own calculations. Amateur astronomer Tony Dunn used publicly available data provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to determine the spacecraft’s current path and posted an image on social media platform

But he told AFP: “What’s actually going to happen because of the fuel leak is actually anyone’s guess.” Or Astrobotic may have given Peregrine a different path, such as deliberately flying close to the moon and shooting into interplanetary space.

A hard moon landing might satisfy some of Astrobotic’s customers, such as those sending human ashes and DNA to the moon, but it could also anger others, such as the Navajo Nation, which called the cargo a “disrespect” to the celestial body.

“I think it would be a shame if they ended their failed mission by littering the Moon’s surface with debris,” Justin Walsh, professor of art history, archeology and space exploration at Chapman University and Ad Astra researcher at USC, told AFP. He added that humanity has left about 180 tons of material on the surface since the first Soviet impactor crashed in 1959.