In the next few hours, the US enterprise that hoped to land on the moon will return home to destruction.
According to Astrobotic, the Peregrine spacecraft will be programmed to burn up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
Shortly after last week's Vulcan rocket launch from Florida, the lander experienced a significant fuel leak.
Despite their ability to stabilize the situation, engineers were unable to attempt a safe touch-down on the lunar surface due to the loss of oxidizer.
The Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic has made the decision to get rid of the spacecraft instead than letting it float through space and risk colliding with other objects.
"Over a secluded region of the South Pacific, Astrobotic has positioned the Peregrine spacecraft for a safe and controlled re-entry to Earth.In its most recent mission report, the business stated, "The team has been continuously monitoring our re-entry analysis with [the US space agency, Nasa]."
"We expect re-entry to occur at approximately 16:00 Thursday, January 18 EST (21:00 GMT)."
The objective of Astrobotic was to transport five NASA sensors to the Moon's surface so that they could investigate the surrounding environment before astronauts return later this decade.
If the Peregrine ship had made a successful landing, it would have been the first private endeavor and the first American mission to do so in fifty years.
To date, only government organizations from the US, the USSR, China, and India have succeeded in conducting controlled lunar landings.
However, Astrobotic can take solace in what it has accomplished despite facing a challenging circumstance.
After determining what went wrong with Peregrine, engineers were able to prolong life in the lander significantly longer than initially thought.
The malfunction was identified as propellant seeping out of an oxidizer tank burst. This was producing thrust, which turned the craft and made it impossible for it to maintain a power source by pointing its solar panels continuously toward the Sun.
In order to restore stable pointing, the Astrobotic team operated Peregrine's thrusters, but this naturally consumed even more of the quickly running out oxidizer.
However, the onboard payloads were turned on, demonstrating their suitability for space travel, and some of them even managed to collect data, including information about the type of radiation environment that exists between Earth and the Moon.
The Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS), one of the first NASA instruments to be operational, had its electronics and sensor created in the UK by RAL Space and the Open University.
According to reports, the instrument did well on the check-out tests. Later lunar expeditions should present an opportunity for the technology to fly again.
As part of a new private-public cooperation with NASA, Astrobotic is the first of three US companies to deploy a lander to the Moon this year.
The agency is purchasing transport services from the Pittsburgh company as well as two additional businesses, Firefly and Intuitive Machines. The three of them had scheduled six lunar trips for 2024.
When Astrobotic attempts to land a NASA rover named Viper in the latter part of the year, it should be given another chance. The first effort from Houston-based Intuitive Machines is probably going to debut next month. The lunar south pole will be the target of its Nova-C craft.
Prior to that, the Japanese space agency intends to land safely next to Shioli, a near-equatorial impact crater. This is set to happen on Friday at 15:20 GMT.
