NASA revives VIPER lunar rover mission with Blue Origin lander award

PARIS — NASA has revived a robotic lunar rover mission by deciding on Blue Origin to ship it to the moon’s south pole in 2027.

NASA introduced Sept. 19 that Blue Origin received a $190 million activity order below the Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program to take the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, to the moon in late 2027.

Blue Origin will use its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to move VIPER. It would be the lander’s second flight, after a mission anticipated to launch as quickly as later this 12 months. VIPER will seek for water ice on the lunar south pole, together with in completely shadowed craters.

The award marks a reversal for NASA. In July 2024, the company stated it might cancel VIPER, citing price overruns and considerations about additional development. Officials additionally frightened the unique lander, Astrobotic’s Griffin, wouldn’t be prepared for a deliberate September 2025 launch.

NASA later sought proposals for partnerships that might ship VIPER to the moon with out further company funding. On May 7, although, it stated it might not pursue a business partnership and as a substitute discover unspecified “alternative approaches.”

The new CLPS activity order, known as CS-7, had not been publicly disclosed earlier than the Blue Origin award. NASA spokespersons couldn’t reply questions on it instantly after the announcement, made close to the shut of enterprise Sept. 19.

This CLPS award is structured in another way. The base award covers solely work to design lodging for VIPER on Blue Moon and to get it off the lander and onto the floor after landing. An possibility would then fund supply of VIPER. NASA states that possibility can be exercised after completion of the design work in addition to a profitable touchdown of the primary Blue Moon mission.

“We’ve been looking for creative, cost-effective approaches to accomplish these exploration goals,” Nicky Fox, NASA affiliate administrator for science, stated in an announcement. “This private sector-developed landing capability enables this delivery and focuses our investments accordingly — supporting American leadership in space and ensuring our long-term exploration is robust and affordable.”

“Our second Blue Moon MK1 lander is already in production and well-suited to support the VIPER rover,” Blue Origin stated in a social media post. “Building on the learnings from our first MK1 lander, this mission is important for future lunar permanence and will teach us about the origin and distribution of water on the moon.”

NASA is now successfully paying for 2 rides for VIPER. The company stored its unique CLPS award to Astrobotic, repurposing it to show Griffin’s touchdown capabilities. Griffin is now slated to hold business payloads, together with the FLIP rover developed by Astrolab.

Astrobotic stated it selected to not bid on the brand new VIPER alternative. “Given the compressed timeline of the CS-7 mission and our commitments to existing customers, Astrobotic made the strategic decision not to submit a bid,” the corporate stated in an announcement to SpaceNews. “Our focus remains on the successful delivery of our customer payloads aboard Griffin-1, and our third lander mission thereafter.”

NASA has not disclosed particulars on the timeline for the CS-7 award or the variety of bids it acquired.

Related