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The first moon lander to launch from the US in half a century will not be able to boldly take the ashes of the Star Trek cast to the moon after all, following a disastrous journey that saw the rocket spring a leak and go awry.

The giant rocket launched into space on the 8 January and was headed towards the moon, but the mission unravelled very quickly and it has now been declared a huge failure.

The ashes of the cast of TV’s Star Trek are now set to float in space for eternity.

The craft – which includes the ashes of actor DeForest Kelley, (Dr McCoy), James Doohan (Scotty) and Lt Uhura star Nichelle Nichols – encountered a fatal fuel leak as it headed for the moon, with mission controllers reckoning the best option is to send it as far as possible into space before it loses power completely.

 

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A post shared by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (@nasakennedy)

According to Astrobotic, the US company behind the project, the craft conducted an “improvised manoeuvre” to aim itself towards the Sun to replenish its batteries. However, they later stated that its thrusters “could likely only operate for 40 hours at most.”

Astrobotics believes a stuck valve may have doomed the private Peregrine moon lander mission.

(1/4) We’ve received the first image from Peregrine in space! The camera utilized is mounted atop a payload deck and shows Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) in the foreground. pic.twitter.com/dUuu0Idz8K

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

The craft – which was also carrying the remains of three former US presidents and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry – had launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US, on Monday.

Gene’s son Rod Roddenberry had said: “I truthfully see all this as an incredibly beautiful, symbolic kind of thing. Everyone is going where no one has gone before.’’

The moon might be considerably closer than Mars, but it’s proving to be a hard task to get back to.

[source:dailystar]