[8] A failure of the craft's propulsion system resulted in Lunar Flashlight being unable to enter orbit around the Moon and NASA terminated the mission on May 12, 2023.

NASA's planning for eventual human mission to Mars depends on tapping the local natural resources to make oxygen and propellant for launching the return ship back to Earth, and a lunar precursor mission is a convenient location to test such in situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology.

The spacecraft includes a chemical propulsion system to provide the impulse needed for Lunar Orbital Insertion (LOI).

This propulsion system was designed and built by Georgia Tech’s Glenn Lightsey Research Group in collaboration with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

[1] Any polar volatile data collected by Lunar Flashlight could then ensure the most appropriate landing sites for a more expensive rover to perform in situ measurements and chemical analyses.

[4] The proposed payload on this nanosatellite is an infrared spectrometer, consisting of a lens, dichroic beam splitters and multiple single-element detectors.

[1] The 6U CubeSat bus will use mostly commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components such as the lithium ion batteries, the CPU board, HaWK solar panels produced by MMA Design LLC, star tracker and 3-axis reaction wheels for attitude control.

[2] The Lunar Flashlight spacecraft was ejected from the Falcon 9 second stage after trans-lunar injection, after which it used a Sun sensor and solar panels to power the 3-axes reaction wheels.

[16][17] The propulsion system had four 100 mN thrusters mounted on the base of the spacecraft, fed by miniature electric gear pump.

[20] Limited success was achieved with the other 3 thrusters by May 2023,[21] but the final effort to recover thrust by running the propellant pump at high speed has probably ruprured a feed line, and further attempts were abandoned.