NASA cancels VIPER Moon rover mission due to delays, funding
VIPER's Moon landing was already rescheduled from 2023 to 2024, but NASA said additional schedule and supply chain delays would have pushed the launch to September 2025, increasing the mission coast by more than $72 million.
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NASA has canceled plans to launch a Moon rover called VIPER, which was scheduled to launch later this year, due to supply chain and budget restraints.
VIPER, which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, VIPER was a payload part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program flying on a private company’s mission. The small rover was designed to look for water in the polar regions on the Moon.
NASA's Artemis lunar rover, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER)
(NASA)
"This is in no way a reflection on the quality of the work from the mission team that are working to build this rover. They have worked diligently, including through the pandemic, to be able to build this rover, to look for water on the Moon. So this is a very tough decision, but it is a decision based on budgetary concerns and in a very constrained budget environment," NASA's Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Nicola Fox said.
VIPER's landing was already rescheduled from 2023 to 2024, but NASA said additional schedule and supply chain delays would have pushed the launch to September 2025 because neither the rover nor the Griffin lander would be ready.
NASA management said these delays could have ripple effects, increasing costs and threatening other CLPS missions.
Three instruments on VIPER will still make it to the Moon, flying on other lunar robotic missions. NASA is also planning to disassemble and reuse other instruments and VIPER components on future Moon missions.
VIPER was scheduled to be delivered to the surface of the Moon in late 2024 by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. NASA canceled the mission in July 2024. (Image Credit: Jef Janis, NASA Glenn Research Center)
Fox said Astrobotic will still fly a demonstration mission with the Griffin lander. The Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic launched its first robotic mission to the Moon in January, but the lander didn’t make it to the lunar surface.
Astrobotic said it is targeting late 2025 to launch the Griffin lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The budget for VIPER approved by Congress was $433 million but with delays, it had already increased to more than $505 million, said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
The space agency will save about $84 million on development and additional operational costs by not going through with the mission to the Moon.
VIPER marks the second Science Mission Directorate mission to be affected by budget restraints. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced earlier this year that the space agency is revising its Mars sample return mission to bring the cost under $7 billion.