US spaceship lost over S. Pacific following failed Moon mission

A crippled American spaceship has been lost over a remote region of the South Pacific, probably burning up in the atmosphere in a fiery end to its failed mission to land on the Moon. The Pittsburgh-based company added it would await independent confirmation of Peregrine's fate from the relevant government authorities. A previous update provided atmospheric re-entry coordinates a few hundred miles (kilometers) south of Fiji, albeit with a wide margin of error. The Japanese space agency's "Moon Sniper," which launched in September, will be the next spaceship to attempt a soft lunar touchdown, a notoriously difficult feat, shortly after midnight Japan time on Saturday (1500 GMT on Friday). If it succeeds, Japan will be the fifth nation to complete the achievement, after the Soviet Union, United States, China and India.