Aug. 4 (UPI) -- NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon ended in failure after the government agency lost contact with the spacecraft one day after the launch in February and never regained communication despite extensive efforts.
The mission ended Friday, NASA said Monday in a news release.
On Feb. 26, the satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin Space, successfully separated from the rocket 38 minutes after launch.
Another spacecraft, the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment, touched down on the lunar surface on March 6 near the moon's south pole. But because the Athena lander was resting in its side inside a crater, the mission lasted only 10 hours instead of 10 days because it couldn't recharge its solar cells.
The Lunar Trailblazer didn't make the 238,000-mile journey from Earth to the moon's surface.
