our science correspondentjonathan amos our science correspondent jonathan amos gave our science correspondentjonathannch this morning and the craft on top of the new vulcan rocket left cape canaveral in florida and everything seemed perfect and then about seven hours after liftoff we had a statement from the private exploration company in pittsburgh in the us. it said their spacecraft had experienced an anomaly of some kind, that is the word they used. the spacecraft, they were going through the standard checkouts that you do on a spacecraft when it comes off the top of the rocket and you go through its systems and power up everything and check the data to see it is working properly. one of the things the spacecraft has got to do, one of the first things, is to point its solar panels at the sun which is how you maintain power, because without power you have no mission. but unfortunately the spacecraft has not been able to point at the sun stably. it is not quite clear what it means but maybe it is doing at some of the time but then is losing track of where the sun is in the sky so maybe it is topping

let's cross to the newsroom and our science correspondentjonathan amos. special about this one? the whole point — what is special about this one? tie: whole point of this mission is to test precise navigation technologies, that is one of the key points of this mission. as you have correctly said, it is difficult to land on the moon. depending on how you count it, only about four out of the last nine or ten missions that have tried to soft land on the moon have tried to soft land on the moon have succeeded. it is an airless body, not as big as the earth, but big enough to have a decent amount of gravity to pull you in. you cannot use parachutes, but you do have to try and slow yourself down. that means using rockets as you come in and then using some sort of technology to know where the surface is so that you can guide those engines, switch them off at the appropriate moment, not too early and gently put yourself down on the surface, while at the same time avoiding big rocks. it is not easy and we have seen a number of efforts in recent years failed to do

we can go live to our science correspondentjonathan amos, you have covered many of these things, so whatis particular problem mean?— problem mean? we had a picture erfect problem mean? we had a picture perfect launch — problem mean? we had a picture perfect launch this _ problem mean? we had a picture perfect launch this morning i problem mean? we had a picture perfect launch this morning and l problem mean? we had a picture l perfect launch this morning and the craft on top of the new vulcan rocket left cape canaveral in florida and everything seemed perfect and then about seven hours after liftoff we had a statement from the private exploration company in pittsburgh in the us saying their spacecraft had experienced an anomaly of some kind, that is the word they used. the spacecraft, they were going to the standard checkouts that you do on a spacecraft when it comes off the top of the rocket and you go through its systems and power “p you go through its systems and power up everything and check the data to see it is working properly. one of the things the spacecraft has got to take abou

joining me now is our science correspondentjonathan amos.again, but that hope seems to be fading now? yeah. hope seems to be fading now? yeah, i'm afraid hope seems to be fading now? yeah, i'm afraid the — hope seems to be fading now? yeah, i'm afraid the outlook _ hope seems to be fading now? yeah, i'm afraid the outlook is _ hope seems to be fading now? yeah, i'm afraid the outlook is very - hope seems to be fading now? yeah, i'm afraid the outlook is very poor - i'm afraid the outlook is very poor today. they have been trying to on get top of this propulsion leak. what seems to be happening is that it is losing propellant and as it does so, that is creating a force which is moving the spacecraft out of alignment, which means it is struggling to keep its solar panels pointing at the sun. you need to do that to top the battery up to then power your systems to be able to communicate with earth and do the other thing is that the spacecraft wants to do. to maintain the alignment, they are firing the thrusters on the spacecraft. and of course,

let's speak to our science correspondentjonathan amos.athan.— so what, tell us how this is going to unfold, jonathan. i'm looking at all the sources _ to unfold, jonathan. i'm looking at all the sources at _ to unfold, jonathan. i'm looking at all the sources at the _ to unfold, jonathan. i'm looking at all the sources at the moment, . all the sources at the moment, waiting for confirmation that the peregrine lender has actually reentered the earth's atmosphere and burned up. i think it probably should have come in by now, wejust need the confirmation either from asked robotic, the company that was, or nasa as well. we were expecting it to come in high over an archipelago in the south pacific about 1700 km east of australia about 1700 km east of australia about 1000 miles. there's about a tonne of hard work, just over, i think, that should have started to melt, vaporise about 18 km up. very little of it would have made it to the pacific ocean, the surface. but as you say we need confirmation. they would've had a signal, radio signal all t