The first human moon landing in more than 50 years also got bumped, from 2025 to September 2026. CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty ImagesLaunched on Monday as part of NASA's commercial lunar program, Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lander was supposed to serve as a scout for the astronauts. Related storiesNASA is relying heavily on private companies for its Artemis moon-landing program for astronauts, named after the mythological twin sister of Apollo. SpaceX's Starship mega rocket will be needed to get the first Artemis moonwalkers from lunar orbit down to the surface and back up. In a test flight of its new moon rocket in 2022, the space agency sent an empty Orion capsule into lunar orbit and returned it to Earth.

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Persons: —, Bill Nelson, Peregrine Lunar Lander, CHANDAN KHANNA, Astrobotic, Peregrine, Artemis, Timothy Clary, Elon Musk's, Amit Kshatriya Organizations: NASA, Service, Artemis, United Launch Alliance, Houston, Getty, SpaceX Locations: Pittsburgh, Texas, of Mexico, AFP