New Vulcan rocket blasts off on maiden flight carrying privately built robotic moon lander

Astrobotic’s lunar lander headed to the moon Astrobotic’s lunar lander headed to the moon 02:33 Update: Astrobotic said its moon lander ran into problems staying properly oriented; read the latest here. Our earlier story is below. For the first time in more than 50 years, a commercially built American lander was fired off to the moon early Monday, a small robotic probe called Peregrine that’s packed with 20 experiments and international payloads, including five NASA science instruments and a sensor valued at $108 million. Other payloads include university experiments, a collection of Mexican and U.S. micro rovers, artwork, compact time…