Astrobotic delays Griffin-1 Moon mission to NET July 2026 – Spaceflight Now

Astrobotic is now eyeing the summer season of 2026 for the launch of its second mission with the purpose of touchdown on the floor of the Moon.

On Friday, the corporate based mostly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stated it was concentrating on a launch window in July 2026 for the flight of its medium-sized class Griffin lander, notably bigger in comparison with the Peregrine lander flown in January 2024.

Both missions are a part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which is designed to get the company’s science devices and know-how demonstrations to the floor of the Moon. These missions are supposed to assist additional the understanding of the Moon as NASA and its worldwide companions put together for human exploration by way of the Artemis program.

Astrobotic additionally laid out a number of milestones it achieved on the highway to launch, together with the completion of acceptance testing for its avionics flight {hardware} and performing “a fully closed-loop simulation of the descent and landing sequence.”

Having accomplished acceptance testing on its shoebox-sized BEACON (Benchmark for Engineering and Autonomous Capabilities in Operations and Navigation) rover again in July, Astrobotic stated its now utilizing a high-fidelity duplicate of the rover, referred to as Flatsat, to carry out joint mission growth coaching with associate, Canada-based Mission Control.

The mission will launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Multiple delays

The timing of the launch of Griffin-1 was partially pushed by the readiness and flight of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, which was initially scheduled to launch in 2021 onboard United Launch Alliance’s inaugural Vulcan rocket. That launch was delayed due largely to delays stemming from the event and readiness of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines that energy the Vulcan rocket.

The Griffin-1 mission was additionally designed to move NASAS’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission to the lunar south pole. In June 2020, NASA awarded Astrobotic a $199.5 million contract to ship its rover to the Moon in 2023.

In a May 2021 press release, NASA stated that the contract for Astrobotic had elevated in worth to $226.5 million. This was as a consequence of some extra necessities on the rover that altered its mass.

All gave the impression to be progressing properly in April 2022, which is when NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) printed a report stating that the spacecraft’s 4 science devices had been on schedule and that Astrobotic officers stated growth of the Griffin lander “remains on track to meet the current launch timetable” of November 2023.

However, in July 2022, NASA announced a delay of the mission to November 2024 due to a brand new mandate “for additional ground testing of the company’s Griffin lunar lander.” That bumped the mission price up once more, this time to $320.4 million.

An inside evaluation at NASA resulted within the July 2024 announcement that it was suspending additional growth of VIPER, stating that persevering with additional “would result in an increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption to other CLPS missions.”

The company acknowledged that the time that Astrobotic would proceed on with the Griffin-1 mission, however allowed it to pursue different payloads. The mission was decided to launch no sooner than fall 2025.

Fast ahead to February 2025, Venturi Astrolab’s FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform (FLEX) rover was brought onboard as the brand new main payload for the Griffin-1 mission.

“Astrobotic received worldwide interest from dozens of organizations eager to fly aboard Griffin-1, and we conducted a rigorous selection process to identify the mission partner that aligned best with our timeline and Griffin’s capabilities,” stated John Thornton, Astrobotic’s founder and CEO, in February. “Astrolab shares our vision of making lunar science, exploration, and commercial activity both accessible and transformative.”

As of Friday’s replace, Astrobotic stated FLIP “is undergoing developmental thermal vacuum testing, and core rover systems are integrated.” It added that within the coming months, Astrolab “will complete payload integration and vehicle-level protoqualification testing.”

Meanwhile the combination of Griffin’s core construction is almost full with issues like angle management thrusters, photo voltaic panels, ramps and pressurant tanks finishing match checks.