A lunar lander, built by a private company, set to put the U.S. back on the moon for the first time in 50 years blasted off on its mission early Monday.
A brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:18 a.m. (7:18 a.m. GMT) for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander.
If all goes well, Peregrine would mark the first U.S. soft landing on the moon since the final Apollo landing in 1972, and the first-ever lunar landing by a private company – a feat that has proved elusive in recent years.
Peregrine is set to land on the moon on Feb. 23 with scientific payloads aboard that will seek to gather data about the lunar surface ahead of planned future human missions.
The launch was a crucial first for United Launch Alliance (ULA). Vulcan has spent roughly a decade in development to replace ULA's workhorse Atlas V rocket and rival the reusable Falcon 9 from Elon Musk's SpaceX in the satellite launch market.
