Astrobotic's lunar lander suffers glitch in space, moon mission fate unclear

A privately built moon lander launched Monday morning to make the first U.S. soft lunar landing in more than 50 years failed to enter its correct orientation in space, suffering what its owners termed an "anomaly" that calls the mission's fate into question.

"Unfortunately, an anomaly occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation," Astrobotic said in a statement.